This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we continue with our American stories.

Up next, a sports story, an innovation story, and so much more.

Since its start in 1972, Nike has employed nearly a half a million people.

Only four have outlasted our next storyteller, Steve Bence.

Bence is Nike's program director in global sourcing and manufacturing.

It was an All-American runner under legendary track coach at Oregon, Bill Bowerman,

who became the co-founder of Nike.

Steve Bence is also the author of 1972, pre-U-O. Trek, Nike Shoes,

and My Life with Them All. Let's take a listen.

Hi, my name's Steve Bence. I was born in Tennessee. I started kindergarten in Japan,

and I graduated from high school in Spain. I went to the University of Oregon to run track,

and later started with Nike.

The way I discovered running was during my junior year in high school.

I went out for football in seventh grade because all my friends were going out for football.

But at home, we never watched sports, so even though I was on the football team,

I really didn't know the rules or the strategy, so I sat on the bench the whole time.

In the winter, I went out for basketball and sat the bench again.

And when one of the games was out of hand, the coach put me in,

and four times I brought the basketball up court,

four times I was called for traveling.

I looked over at my coach and he was just shaking his head.

...