Steve Prefontaine Leading The Munich 1972 Summer Olympics 5,000 Meter Race
“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”
Steve Prefontaine
I was on the Varsity Track Team at La Salle Academy from 1972 to 1975. La Salle was, and still is, the oldest Catholic High School in the United States. I was a good runner, but nothing special, quite unlike my basketball skills, which I excelled at.
I enjoyed those long after-school runs all over Manhattan we would do as a team. My favorite was a ten-kilometer run down to the Southernmost tip of Manhattan, called Battery Park, and then back to La Salle on Second Avenue and Second Street in the Bowery section. I also enjoyed running by the World Trade Center as they were being built and going through the historic Wall Street district, where on Thursday, April 30, 1789, the first president of the United States, George Washington, was inaugurated.
Our coach, Dennis Healy, would frequently join us on these long runs. We ran across the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge (Illegally, for the roadway was blocked off and we had to climb onto the subway tracks to get on the roadway that had many missing three-foot sections in the cement that you could see right down to the East River – Mr. Healy wasn’t with us), the Williamsburg Bridge, and the Queensboro Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge, and since 2010, the Ed Koch Bridge.
Mr. Healy was the geometry teacher during my sophomore year (1972-1973). I was gifted at mathematics, and especially loved geometry, so I was looking forward to this class. At the beginning of my first class with him, he began to ask questions about the runners and times of the recently finished Munich 1972 Summer Olympics. I put my hand up for every question, for I knew the answer to each one.
At the end of the class, Mr. Healy asked me to stay for a minute, so I did. He told me, I found it astounding that you had exactly the correct time for each event I asked about. I replied to him, I have an encyclopedic memory for subjects that I have a keen interest in. He then asked do you like to run? I said yes, but I have never trained in running, basketball is my forte.
He then mentioned to me, I saw you run the half-mile during the La Salle sporting games and you had a very good time for a freshman. I said, thank you. I remember that I was doing well, but started to rig (really slow down) during the last two hundred yards or so. He then asked me if I would like to join the track team, and he promised me, my endurance would vastly improve. So I said yes, I will give it a try.
Dennis Healy was inducted into the La Salle Academy Athletics Hall of Fame the very first year it started, in 1987. Also inducted that first year was Dan Buckley, the Varsity Basketball coach and the man who recruited me to play basketball for La Salle when I was still in seventh grade at Ascension Grammar School.
https://www.lasalleacademy.org/alumni/hall-of-fame
I enjoyed running, so I soon officially joined the Varsity Track Team. I gradually got better and better at running, especially when running longer distances, so Mr. Healy was correct when he promised me my endurance would improve. However, I soon realized that I wasn’t going to be a great runner, but that was perfectly fine with me. The wonderful thing that running did was it stuck with me throughout my life, so much so that I ran the New York City Marathon in 1988 and again in 1991.
While on the track team, the runner I grew to admire the most was Steve Prefontaine. In many ways, I found him to be the personification of a great athlete, with admirable qualities that included dedication, hard training, and gutsy bravado. He was known for going out aggressively at the start of races to be the front-runner, and when he got the lead, he rarely relinquished it. He gained a reputation as an intimidating competitor who talked big but also delivered on it. Yet he was down to earth and friendly with those fans who admired and adored him.
Hayward Field, May 29, 1975, The Last Race, And Pre Won
“Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints.
I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say,
‘I’ve never seen anyone run like that before.’ It’s more than just a race, it’s a style.
It’s doing something better than anyone else. It’s being creative.”
Steve Prefontaine
The following is an excerpt from: What Makes Pre So Special by Jeff Johnson
I want to tell you about a boy. A boy who became a legend among American distance runners. People who never saw him run ask, “What was so special about him? He was just a runner.” Well, I will tell you.
It was the summer of 1969, and I was on the campus of the University of Miami for the National AAU Senior Men’s Track & Field Championships. I was just beginning a career as a photojournalist, and this track meet was one of my first assignments. I wanted to do a good job.
And so, I was preoccupied when I stepped into the elevator. As the doors closed, a small boy squeezed in behind me. From the look of him, he was about 12 years old. I ignored him, but as we began our ascent, I became aware that he was looking me over.
“What event do you do?” he asked.
In that distant summer of 1969, I was 27-years-old, fit and undamaged by time. In that elevator of the athletes’ dormitory, one might reasonably have mistaken me for a competing athlete. The boy obviously had. I told him I wasn’t an athlete. I was a photographer for Track & Field News. Then I went back to ignoring him.
“What’s your name?” he persisted.
I told him.
“I’ve seen your pictures,” he said, then proceeded to recall specific pictures I had taken and his opinions of them. I was really impressed. Who even notices the tiny photographer’s credit alongside a picture in a magazine, much less remembers it? This kid was a real fan.
For a moment, I thought he was going to ask me for my autograph. I didn’t ask him his name.
The next evening I saw this boy again. He was standing on the starting line of the 3-mile run, nearly lost among the shadows of America’s best long-distance runners, a gate-crashing child to be pulled aside by officials at any moment so the race might begin. Or so I thought. Then I noticed the mustard-colored vest clinging damply to his chest, and the single word-Marshfield-arched across the front, and recognition finally dawned.
“My God, that’s Steve Prefontaine.”
Silke Field In Springfield, Oregon, April 19, 1968, Pre mile in 4:23:4.
One year later he set the high school record for the two-mile at 8:41.5.
“When people go to a track meet, they’re looking for something,
a world record, something that hasn’t been done before.
You get all this magnetic energy, people focusing on one thing at the same time.
I really get excited about it. It makes me want to compete even more.
It makes it all worthwhile, all the hours of hard work.”
Steve Prefontaine
Few of us knew Pre in that summer of ’69, but nearly everyone had heard of him-the fiery high school runner from Coos Bay, Oregon, who that spring had set the scholastic record of 8:41 for 2 miles and who was already known for his audacious, front-running style. In less than six years he would be gone, but in that brief time Pre would gain a reputation that has already spanned a life greater than his own.
He left us the records: Four consecutive NCAA track titles at 3 miles, a feat never before accomplished; American records at every distance from 2,000 to 10,000 meters; five years without a loss to any American at any distance greater than a Mile. At Hayward Field, his home track, in front of his fans, his people, he never lost a race longer than a Mile to anyone, American or foreign. Never.
But it isn’t for the record that Pre is remembered. He is remembered for how he competed. And how he lived.
I didn’t know Pre very well, but I’m not here to tell you what he was like. I’m here to tell you why he affected us so much. But I find I can’t do the one without the other, so I’ll tell you what I do know.
I know that Pre was just an unsophisticated, small-town kid. Bill Bowerman called him ‘Rube’ because he was so direct and upfront with people. When they asked him what he meant to do, he would tell them: he was going to win, of course. The media portrayed Pre as cocky. But Pre merely had a child’s enthusiasm for his own potential, and a fierce confidence born from the consistency of his training. According to his coach, Bill Dellinger, in Pre’s four years at the University of Oregon, he never missed a workout. Not one.
Pre had a child’s look about him, too-the girls thought he was cute-an image which pained him and which he tried to change midway through college by growing his hair long and adopting an outlaw’s mustache. But no one was fooled. Though he became a giant slayer, Pre was still just a boy, and the people of Eugene, Oregon, embraced him and made him their own.
Pre had a charisma, a personal magnetism that drew people to him, but in every other way he was just a normal college kid. Dellinger described him as just “someone who didn’t know any better and went out and did whatever he said he was going to do.” To his teammates, Pre was easygoing, “just one of the guys.”
He lived in a trailer and survived on food stamps.
He took his dog to class with him.
He grew his own vegetables.
He started a jogging club, then jogged with the joggers. He went to schools and talked with the kids. He went to the state prison and got involved with their programs; he even worked for an inmate’s parole. He seemed to have limitless energy and a desire to make a difference. He was Oregon’s Man of the Year in 1975. A college kid. An athlete. A runner.
He personally organized a track tour to bring Finnish athletes to compete in Eugene, including Lasse Viren, who had beaten him in the ’72 Olympics. And he publicly criticized the AAU-which was then the national governing body of the sport-specifically for not taking the lead in creating more opportunities for international competitions, and generally for its shabby treatment of American athletes. He spoke out against the status quo and stood up for athletes’ rights when few would. And he took considerable heat for it.
He had a kindness about him, especially with children. A father tells a story of taking his son to a meet to see Pre run. Before the race, the boy went to the warm-up area to get Pre’s autograph. When he came back, he told his dad, “Pre wouldn’t sign.”
“Well,” said the father, “Pre is getting ready to race. Ask him later.” After the race, the boy tried again. This time Pre signed. Recognizing the boy from before, Pre asked him, “What are you doing for the next few minutes? Come warm down with me.” As the father tells it, that warm-down jog with Pre changed his son’s life.
He was intensely loyal to his teammates. In 1971, Pre won the conference cross-country title with Oregon finishing second. The school was going to send Pre, but not the team, to the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Knoxville. But Pre said he wouldn’t go without his team. So they sent the team. Pre won, leading Oregon to its first-ever NCAA Cross Country team title.
He was loyal to his fans as well. One fall day in 1974, Pre was in Eugene training for a 5,000 that he would soon run in Europe. To sharpen, he had planned to run a fast track Mile, and though it was just a workout, no one in Eugene ever missed a chance to see Pre run. One thousand people showed up that day, which was also “field-burning day” in the Willamette Valley, the one day each year when the farmers burned the stubble left in their fields after the harvest. The smoke was so thick you could barely see across the track; it was no day to even be outdoors, much less training. But there were those thousand people. For them, Pre ran his workout Mile in 3:58.3 and coughed blood at the end. And then, his lungs gravely wounded, he found a bullhorn and thanked the people for their support.
What Makes Pre So Special
by Jeff Johnson
https://www.bringbackthemile.com/news/detail/what_makes_pre_so_special
In 1969, Steve Prefontaine first gained national attention when he set the high school record for the two-mile (8:41.5). He went on to become the greatest collegiate runner ever, claiming NCAA titles in all four years while at the University of Oregon at Eugene.
It was during these same years that I was running on the track team, by far and away, Steve Prefontaine was the greatest American long-distance runner. Although only 24 at the time of his death and just starting to enter his prime years, Pre, as he soon came to be known, set American records at every distance from 2,000 to 10,000 meters, seven in total between 1973 and 1975. He won his final race, the NCAA Prep at Eugene, Oregon, on May 29, 1975. It was his 25th straight win in a distance over a mile.
After attending a party that evening, Pre drove Frank Shorter to Kenny Moore’s home. Frank Shorter was the gold medal winner in the Munich 1972 Olympic marathon and the silver medal winner in the Montreal 1976 Olympic marathon. I was at the Montreal 1976 marathon and also met Frank Shorter and the great marathoner Bill Rodgers, best known for his four victories in both the Boston Marathon, including three-straight from 1978 to 1980, and his four-straight wins in the New York City Marathon, between 1976 and 1979, before a Central Park race in 1991. After dropping him off, Steve Prefontaine died when his 1973 MGB convertible crossed the centerline, jumped the curb, hit a rock wall, and flipped, trapping him underneath it. I owned a beautiful 1971 MGB, and the seats were so low it felt like your bottom was almost connected to the ground. So, in my judgment, to flip that car, many horrible things had to go wrong. Then, to be trapped under it, and hamper your breathing to asphyxiation but not causing any other life-threatening injuries is almost impossible. Yet, the official cause of his death was traumatic asphyxiation. Pre was alive but gasping for air when the first person arrived, but he could not lift the MGB off of him. No other injuries contributed to his death. The day was May 30, 1975. Five days later, I graduated from La Salle.
The following is an excerpt from: Steve Prefontaine’s Last Run by Mary Pilon
But on May 30, 1975, Prefontaine’s legacy was still in the making. After dropping off Shorter, he drove away. Arne Alvarado, a 16-year-old at South Eugene High School, was at home on Skyline Boulevard. From his view upstairs, it did not appear that Prefontaine was speeding. “He was just putzing,” Alvarado said.
Then, Alvarado said, he saw Prefontaine abruptly turn to the left to avoid the headlights of an oncoming vehicle.
His father, Bill Alvarado, later said that he heard “the squeal of a tire, a loud thump, and then silence,” according to the police report. He rapidly dressed and went into the street to see if he could locate the accident. As he approached the street, Alvarado said, he saw the other car coming toward his residence “traveling at a high rate of speed.” He waved his arms and hollered to try to stop it, but it drove past him, according to the report.
Alvarado then got into his own car and tried to follow the other car as it made its way up Skyline Boulevard, according to a police report. He was unable to spot the other car. Returning home, he saw Prefontaine’s car flipped over. He rushed inside and told his wife to call the police. He told his son, Arne, to stay inside, a command that Arne said he ignored.
“I didn’t realize it was Steve,” Arne Alvarado said. “It was just a person under a car. He was gasping. He was choking.”
The weight of the car was crushing Prefontaine. “Steve was very much alive when I got there,” Arne Alvarado said. “All I could do is say, ‘Sorry. I can’t help you.’ It’s always weighed heavily on me. I’ve always had a deep resentment for the other driver.”
The 16-year-old Alvarado said that he pushed his father about talking to the police further about the accident but was brushed aside. The Alvarados discussed the lack of contact between the two cars and how they hadn’t actually seen the other driver’s face. Based on physical evidence, it would be virtually impossible to contradict the police report.
“But I stood in the window and watched those lights come together,” the younger Alvarado said. “It is what it is.”
Almost instantly, rumors began to swirl around the “other driver.” The police report and local news accounts of what happened that night named a 20-year-old, but locals wondered if he was actually behind the wheel or whether it was his father, a prominent doctor in town. They wondered, too, if the other driver had been intoxicated.
The Shirleys also heard rumors: The driver had left Eugene for months after the accident; his father, the doctor, had a drinking problem and it was actually him in the car that night; he had convinced his son to take the rap; his medical license had been on the rocks; the son went to the district attorney’s office to “confess” but they didn’t want to accept the confession. But these were just rumors.
Years later, as an adult, Arne Alvarado said, he ran into the driver’s father at the supermarket at the foot of the hill.
“I told him the truth,” Arne Alvarado said. “That it was him. He started shaking a lot. I told him that it had destroyed me as a kid because I knew Steve. Steve was my hero. And having to experience that night and have it haunt me ever since, to hear on the radio the next day that it was a one-car accident and that Steve had killed himself driving drunk, that’s ground on me. Excuse my French, but it’s always pissed me off. I know it was a two-car accident. I saw it.”
Local news accounts from the time say that the driver and his father avoided inquiries from reporters. In March, I dialed a phone number listed for the man listed in the police report as the other driver. Several people in Eugene had told me that he had left town and moved to Seattle years ago. I left a voicemail and my cell phone number. I left another. I still haven’t heard back.
Steve Prefontaine’s Last Run
by Mary Pilon
https://grantland.com/features/steve-prefontaine-death
“You have to wonder at times what you’re doing out there.
Over the years, I’ve given myself a thousand reasons to keep running,
but it always comes back to where it started.
It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.”
Steve Prefontaine
One night around forty years ago, while driving my taxi in Manhattan, I picked up two men on First Avenue and First Street, just one block South and one block East of La Salle, which was on Second Avenue and Second Street. They wanted to go to 51st Street and First Avenue. Both were talking to each other when, out of the blue, I interjected by saying you guys are from Oregon. They were both taken aback by this and said yes, how did you know? Did we say anything that tipped you off? I said no, things just come to me. How do you know these things, one guy asked. I don’t know how it works, but it frequently happens to me. Well then, tell us something else, he said to me, with some indignation and much suspicion. It doesn’t work like that, I responded.
They went back to talking, and about a minute later, I blurted out, you guys are from Eugene. They were astonished and said yes, we are both from Eugene. Then the one suspicious guy said; how the fuck did you know this? We tipped you off somehow. But the other guy said to his friend, no, we didn’t say anything about Oregon or Eugene. He went on to say, our driver seems to be tapped into some strange shit. The other man then said, tell us something else. Once again, I stated it doesn’t happen like that. Within a minute or so, they calmed down and began talking again.
As I stopped at 51st Street and First Avenue, I declared, Stop Pre. The man who doubted me the most about how I knew they were from Oregon and Eugene went absolutely batshit crazy. He instantly starting yelling repeatedly at the top of his lungs, Steve Prefontaine was my best friend, he was my best friend, Pre was my best friend.
He went on screaming about Pre for about a minute. The other man with him was trying to console him during this time, to no avail. The screaming man, finally stopped, and then began to weep, as if he had been holding this insufferable pain in for many years. As he did, the other man said to me in a hushed and somber voice, yes, Pre, Steve Prefontaine, was his best friend.
It took a few minutes for Pre’s best friend to regain his composure. The other man was also bewildered and in a semi-state of shock about what happened himself but showed the utmost compassion for his friend. When they got out of my taxi, I also got out and gave the man who was grieving a hug, and as I did, I said to him, I was inspired to become a runner because of Pre, and I greatly admired your best friend.
His grief-stricken reaction to this most improbable occurrence profoundly affected me, so much so, that here it is now, more than forty years later, and it has brought me to tears while recollecting and writing about this phenomenon and its alarmingly depressive aftermath.
When these three statements were said by me, and the untold times throughout my life this has occurred, it is not some form of deductive reasoning on my part, there is no logical thought process going on that I am aware of, it just spontaneously happens, as if I’m simply an innocent bystander or some sort of medium to relay the information.
Steve Prefontaine is memorialized by the Prefontaine Classic meet in Eugene, Oregon. He’s been the subject of two Hollywood movies, two documentaries, and four books. He was, and still is, the inspiration that has encouraged millions to start running throughout these last fifty years, and for countless many like me, be lifelong runners. Thank you Pre.
Chants of “Pre! Pre! Pre!” had soon become frequent features at Hayward Field. Fans liked to wear tees that read Legend or Go Pre. At the 1972 Olympic Trials, some of his competitors wore Stop Pre tees while warming up. Prefontaine found humor in the shirts and, when offered, decided to wear one for his victory lap.
Pre was born on January 25, 1951, and died on May 30, 1975, at the age of twenty-four.
Requiescat In Pace, Steve Prefontaine.
His indomitable and unforgettable spirit still lives on in our hearts.
Pre Lives.
“No matter how hard you train,
Somebody will train harder.
No matter how hard you run,
Somebody will run harder.
No matter how hard you want it,
Somebody will want it more,
I am Somebody.”
Steve Prefontaine
The Munich 1972 Summer Olympics, 5,000 Meter Race (17:05)
Watch one of the most competitive 5K races ever run in 1972 where Steve Prefontaine took the lead during the last mile starting a battle with the reigning 5K Champ Mohammed Gammoudi, 10K Champ Lasse Viren and Great Britain’s Ian Stewart. The race was run on pure guts in the final mile inspiring the next generation of American Distance Runners.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlpbZ6FMzNc
Spingola Speaks Interviews Mark R. Elsis, June 1, 2015 (1:41:21)
At the beginning of the interview (from 2:15 to 11:15), I commemorate the fortieth year since Steve Prefontaine died. I called it, Stop Pre.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/VcxbQC78hYz4
Steve Prefontaine (13 Videos)
Playlist by Mark R. Elsis
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9SLRU38-i-aZQbqJBSTCRSsR7zo5dhUs
What Makes Pre So Special
Heroes like Steve Prefontaine never really die. They live on in our hearts and perform their warrior deeds on the big screens of memory and imagination. They define the excellence to which we aspire. They arouse our spirits. They fire our souls.
by Jeff Johnson
https://www.bringbackthemile.com/news/detail/what_makes_pre_so_special
The Prefontaine Classic is the premier track and field meet in the United States. Since its inception in 1975, the meet has been a fixture in the global track and field calendar, earning a reputation for bringing the world’s best athletes to Hayward Field at the University of Oregon.
In Living Memorial To Pre: His Inspiration, His Ambition
Bill Bowerman – June 1, 1975
https://www.preclassic.com
Fire On The Track: The Steve Prefontaine Story (1995) (58 minutes)
Pre embodied the spirit of athletic excellence. He had a belief in self and sport that transcended all but the outer reaches of human speed and endurance. As a freshman, he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, which hailed him as “America’s Distance Prodigy”. Off the track, he fought relentlessly for the rights of amateur athletes to prosper for their sacrifices. Narrated by Ken Kesey, Fire On the Track is the story of this young lion’s life, as told through rare footage and the memories of those who knew him best – his teammates, coaches, family and friends. Interviews include David Bedford, Frank Shorter, Ian Stewart, Bill Bowerman, Jeff Galloway, Dick Buerkle, Lasse Viren, Dana Carvey, Mac Wilkins, Kenny Moore, Dave Wottle, Alberto Salazar, and many more.
Director: Erich Lyttle
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1260355
Prefontaine (1 hour and 46 minutes) (1997)
Based on the life of Olympic hopeful Steve Prefontaine, a long distance runner who lived in Oregon and died young.
Director: Steve James
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119937
Without Limits (1 hour and 57 minutes) (1998)
The life of renowned runner Steve Prefontaine and his relationship with legendary coach Bill Bowerman.
Director: Robert Towne
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119934
Steve Prefontaine (1951-1975)
For Steve Prefontaine, running was a way to find confidence, a way to stand out and to prove himself. It was also an art form. “Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints,” Prefontaine told reporter Don Chapman. “I like to make something beautiful when I run….It’s more than just a race, it’s style….It’s being creative.” Pre, as he was called, helped create a distance-running legacy that reached from the beginning of the running boom in the United States to the birth of Nike. He helped set in motion a movement that solidified the University of Oregon as a mecca of track and field and turned Eugene into Tracktown, USA.
by John Killen
https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/prefontaine_steve
40 Years After His Death, Steve Prefontaine’s Legend Lives On
Heald talks to Pre’s mother, Elfriede Prefontaine, and Pat Tyson, a close running friend of Pre’s who now coaches at Gonzaga. And there’s this section: “Pre brought the same urgent swagger to distance running that Muhammad Ali brought to boxing. When Pre talked about running, he made it sound more macho than football, more illuminating than poetry.”
by John Killen
https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a21728090/that-pre-thing
Steve Prefontaine
Steve Roland Prefontaine (January 25, 1951 – May 30, 1975) was a runner who from 1973 to 1975 set American records at every distance from 2,000 to 10,000 meters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Prefontaine
Steve Prefontaine’s Last Run
Forty Years After The Track Icon’s Death, His Life Continues To Affect Athletes Everywhere – And His Loss Haunts Those At Home.
With golden hair, movie star charisma, and a rebellious air, Prefontaine was redefining what it meant to be an Olympic athlete. Through his fame as a tough runner with a fierce kick and outspoken nature, he emerged as a rebel with a cause: improving life for working athletes. Neither Oregon nor the sport of running had ever seen a personality as bold as Prefontaine’s, let alone one so fearless in criticizing his sport’s governing body.
by Mary Pilon
http://grantland.com/features/steve-prefontaine-death
Steve Prefontaine’s Sister, Neta, Visits Pre’s Rock On The Eve Of The Anniversary Of His Fatal Crash
Pre was stubborn, Towne and Kenny Moore, an Olympic marathoner, wrote for a scene in “Without Limits” in which Oregon coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, played by Donald Sutherland, eulogizes Prefontaine. “He insisted on holding himself to a higher standard than victory. A race is a work of art. That’s what he said. That’s what he believed. And he was out to make it one every step of the way. Of course, he wanted to win. Those who saw him compete and those who competed against him were never in any doubt about how much he wanted to win. But how he won mattered to him more. Pre thought I was a hard case. But he finally got it through my head that the real purpose of running isn’t to win a race. It’s to test the limits of the human heart. And that he did. Nobody did it more often. Nobody did it better.”
Not long ago I spotted a middle school kid running on a trail by himself. He was wearing a T-shirt I had seen before in places as far and wide as London, Austin and Rio de Janeiro. On the shirt was Prefontaine’s face and the look of a man in earnest search of his inner limits. Below it were two words, simple and true. “Pre Lives.”
by Thomas Boyd
http://www.oregonlive.com/multimedia/index.ssf/2015/05/steve_prefontaines_sister_neta.html
Steve Prefontaine’s Legacy Lives Strong 40 Years After His Death
On the 40th anniversary of his death Saturday, Steve Prefontaine continues to tower over his sport. Both a cult figure and household name during his brief-but-brilliant career, he looms even larger in death than he did in life, which seems almost unimaginable to those of us who were captivated by him in the 1970s. “He’s almost like a god-like figure in the sport,” said Steve Scott, the former American record-holder in the mile.
by Scott M. Reid
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/prefontaine-663624-american-race.html
Prefontaine
Steve Prefontaine is likely the most legendary American distance runner, not just for his feats on the track, but his manner of winning, and his early, tragic death.
by Steven Roland
https://www.olympics.com/en/athletes/steven-roland-prefontaine
Chasing Prefontaine: The Run For A Record
His following was huge by track standards, with thousands attending his races.
by Chelsea J. Carter
https://www.cnn.com/2012/07/02/sport/prefontaine-running-record/index.html
Steve Prefontaine Death Anniversary
10 Inspiring Quotes From Oregon Track, Nike Legend 40 Years After His Passing
Steve Prefontaine, 40 years after his death, remains perhaps the most influential runner in United States’ history. Saturday, May 30, marks the anniversary of the single-car accident in Eugene, Oregon that took Prefontaine’s life at just 24 years old.
by Tim Marcin
http://www.ibtimes.com/steve-prefontaine-death-anniversary-10-inspiring-quotes-oregon-track-nike-legend-40-1944644
Steve Prefontaine Still Resonates 40 Years After His Death
He was certainly the most popular track and field athlete in the nation at the time, if not the world. Fierce. Fearless. Fighter. Grit. Gumption. Guts. Hero. History. Courage. Icon. Driven. Incredible. Unforgettable. Beautiful. Legend.
by Mark Baker
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/college/steve-prefontaine-still-resonates-40-years-after-his-death
Never-Before-Seen Photo Of Steve Prefontaine Surfaces
How A Eugene Newspaper Unearthed A Rare Photo Of The Legendary Runner On The 40th Anniversary Of His Death.
by Liam Boylan-Pett
http://www.runnersworld.com/general-interest/never-before-seen-photo-of-steve-prefontaine-surfaces
The Steve Prefontaine Story
We want to introduce you to one of Oregon’s greatest sports legends, Steve Prefontaine, who’s pursuit for Olympic medals was a driving factor in the American running craze in the mid-1970s. During his brief 24-year life-span, Steve Prefontaine grew from hometown hero, to record-setting college phenomenon, to internationally acclaimed track star.
by Oregon Adventure Coast
https://www.oregonsadventurecoast.com/steve-prefontaine-story
The Story Behind The Stop Pre Shirts, Which Have Endured For Decades In Steve Prefontaine’s Memory
Fifty years ago this summer, Eugene – known for its quirky, passionate love of track and field – hosted the biggest track meet in its small-town history. The Olympic trials, the event that would select the U.S. team that would go to Munich for the Olympic Games later that summer, were to be held on the University of Oregon campus. It was the summer of 1972.
by Jack Pfeifer
https://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/2022/07/the-story-behind-the-stop-pre-shirts-which-have-endured-for-decades-in-steve-prefontaines-memory.html
Steve Prefontaine Quotes
https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/steve-prefontaine-quotes
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Meetings and Stories
The Wondrous Journey of My Life
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