--- title: Phil Knight Remembers Roger Bannister's Miracle Mile Race description: Phil Knight, founder of Nike, recalls watching Roger Bannister's "Miracle Mile" race. Bannister died on March 3 at the age of 88. canonical: https://time.com/5190958/phil-knight-remembers-roger-bannister/ author: Phil Knight article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-08T12:13:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:34:24.717Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Phil Knight Remembers Roger Bannister’s Miracle Mile og:description: Bannister died on March 3 at the age of 88 og:url: https://time.com/5190958/phil-knight-remembers-roger-bannister/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted95ef5c00fd774a/69892985656a3f163fbd3bc4/roger-bannister-mile.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Roger Bannister Mile og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Phil Knight Remembers Roger Bannister’s Miracle Mile twitter:description: Bannister died on March 3 at the age of 88 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted95ef5c00fd774a/69892985656a3f163fbd3bc4/roger-bannister-mile.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Phil Knight Remembers Roger Bannister's Miracle Mile by [Phil Knight](https://time.com/author/phil-knight/) ## Phil Knight Mar 8, 2018 12:13 PM UTC  Roger Bannister about to cross the tape at the end of his record breaking mile run at Iffley Road, Oxford Roger Bannister about to cross the tape at the end of his record breaking mile run at Iffley Road, OxfordNorman Potter—Central Press/Getty Images by [Phil Knight](https://time.com/author/phil-knight/) ## Phil Knight Mar 8, 2018 12:13 PM UTC Sitting at the dinner table one night in the summer of 1954, my father asked me if I would like to go to Vancouver to see the British Empire Games. “It will be as close as you or I will ever get to actually seeing an Olympics,” he said, “and it ends with the Miracle Mile, the race between the world’s only four-minute milers.” Coming just months after that record was first broken by Roger Bannister, who [died on March 3 at 88](http://time.com/5184485/roger-bannister-dies/), it was a gift from a busy, somewhat distant father to a dutiful, shy son. The race did not disappoint. I was spellbound for all four laps. At the half-mile, the loudspeaker announced the time: “1:58 …” The tenths were drowned out by the roar of the crowd that grew over the next two minutes. The excitement faded, my father turned to me, in one of his teachable moments, and said, “Never in your life will you ever see two men run under four minutes in a single race.” His forecast missed, but it was the best bonding time of our lives. Looking back, there was something else going on that day too. It drove home the magic a great sporting event can weave: the ability of the moment to inspire. For Bannister, the victor, lying exhausted, he had to be saying to himself, “I did it.” He had done far more than he ever could have imagined. _Knight is a co-founder and chairman emeritus of sportswear company Nike Inc._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5190958/phil-knight-remembers-roger-bannister/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5190958/phil-knight-remembers-roger-bannister/"},"headline":"Phil Knight Remembers Roger Bannister's Miracle Mile","datePublished":"2018-03-08T12:13:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:34:24.717Z","description":"The miracle miler","url":"https://time.com/5190958/phil-knight-remembers-roger-bannister/","keywords":["obituaries","Nike","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted95ef5c00fd774a/69892985656a3f163fbd3bc4/roger-bannister-mile.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Phil Knight","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/phil-knight/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted95ef5c00fd774a/69892985656a3f163fbd3bc4/roger-bannister-mile.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Roger Bannister Mile","caption":"Roger Bannister Mile","creditText":"Norman Potter—Central Press/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/obituaries/","name":"obituaries"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5190958/phil-knight-remembers-roger-bannister/","name":"Phil Knight Remembers Roger Bannister's Miracle Mile"}}]}] ```