Pre The Champ.

I know that I am a day late on this but yesterday was Steve Prefontaine’s birthday. Pre would have been 68 years old. My first memories of running as a kid are related to Pre. In my first organized cross country season at around 10 or 11 years old I remember getting a t-shirt that read Pulaski County XC on the front and on the back a quote that read “A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more” – Steve Prefontaine. Being a kid I wanted to know who Prefontaine was so I asked my father that day after practice. He explained to me that Prefontaine was renowned as the best distance runner of all time not because he was the fastest but because he wasn’t afraid to go for it. He explained how Pre always ran from the front with everything he had and how his performance in the 1972 Munich Olympics drilled his name into immortality. From that moment on I think as most of us runners have I set the standard I expected out of myself to Pre’s standard. RUN EVERY RACE AS IF ITS YOUR LAST. To further upon who Steve Prefontaine was… he was from a small town in Oregon named Coos Bay. He was the only son of Raymond and Elfriede Prefontaine. Pre started running his freshmen year of high school in 1965 at Marshfield High School coached by Walt McClure, Jr. McClure had run under coach Bill Bowerman at the University of Oregon in Eugene and his father, Walt McClure, Sr. had run under Bill Hayward, also at Oregon. Pre’s freshmen and sophomore years were okay he ran a 5:01 his freshmen year in the mile and went from the teams 7th man to their second by the end of the season and placed 53rd at the Oregon State meet. In his sophomore year though he failed to qualify for state in his event the 3200 meter aka the 2 mile. However, his coach recalls that it was his sophomore year where his potential in the sport really began to surface. With the advice of Coach McClure Pre decided to train hard over the summer and came into his junior year and went undefeated and won the Oregon State title. He finished his High School career with one of the most historic High School running seasons ever. He obtained a national record at the Corvallis Invitational with a time of 8:41.5 in the 3200 meter 6.9 seconds better than the previous record. Furthermore, Pre won two more state titles that year after another undefeated season in both the one and two mile distances. Going into college from 1970-73 Pre wanted to stay in state and attend The powerhouse of distance running we all know as Oregon University. However, he had not heard much from Bill Bowerman, the head coach for the University of Oregon. Prefontaine only received letters from Oregon once a month. In contrast, schools like Villanova were persistent in their pursuit to get him. Unknowingly though, Bowerman had followed Steve’s career since he was a sophomore and agreed with McClure that he had promise for the sport. Bowerman ended up writing a letter to Prefontaine and it wasn’t until then that Steve made up his mind to attend The University of Oregon. Bowerman wrote in the letter that he was certain that Steve would become the worlds greatest distance runner if he came to Oregon. Bowerman also wrote a letter to the town of Coos Bay thanking them for their role in developing Pre. During his college career he was known as a monstrous front runner and drew comparisons to the 1956 Olympic Gold medalist Vladimir Kuts another famous 5000 meter runner. Although famously known for his no holding back style Pre also had amazing leg speed with a career best 3:54.6 for the mile which was just 3.5 seconds off the American record at the time. In 1972 Pre started training for the Olympic games in Munich which were to be held in September of that year. The Olympics held special meaning for Pre and his family as his mom was a German and his parents met and were married in Germany. Prefontaine set the American record of 13:22.8 in the 5000 meters at the 1972 Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon on July 9. However, he entered the 1972 Olympics as and underdog in the 5000 meter distance. This did not make Pre hesitate however and in the Munich Games as they entered the last mile and after running a slow first two miles he took the lead. He ended the slow pace by negative splitting to finish the race. Going into the bell lap he was in second place Lasse Virén took the lead in the final turn over eventual silver medalist Mohammed Gammoudi. Virén helped bring back the “Flying Finns” a vision of Finnish distance excellence made famous by Hannes Kolehmainen, Paavo Nurmi and Ville Ritola in the 1920s. Gammoudi  represented Tunisia in the Tokyo, Mexico City, and Munich Olympiads and recorded four medals, including a gold medal in the 5000 meters event in Mexico City. Gammoudi was also competitive at 10,000 meters. This set Pre back too third place with 200 meters too go. Steve ran out of steam with 30 meters to go and was overtaken by British runner Ian Stewart in the last 10 meters depriving Pre of a coveted Olympic medal. Stewart also won the following championships European 5,000 meters 1969, Commonwealth 5,000 meters 1970, European Indoor 1969 and 1975 and World Cross Country 1975. In four years at Oregon Steve never lost a collegiate race at the following distances 3 miles, 5,000 meters, 6 miles, and 10,000 meters. In ending his collegiate career as a senior at Oregon University he only lost in Eugene three times with all three defeats coming in the mile. It was also during his senior year when Pre began his bout with the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union). The AAU was persistent in the matter that athletes must stay “amateur” and not be paid for the participation in track meets in order to stay eligible for the Olympic Games. This was considered unfair by many as athletes also had to pay all their own travel expenses while going to compete in AAU sponsored meets which generated millions in revenue off the athletes performances. The AAU at the time was taking away amateur status if the athletes became endorsed in any way. Because Prefontaine was accepting free clothes and footwear from Nike, he was subject to the AAU’s ruling. Following his college career from 1974-75 Pre started to train for the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. During this time he ran for the Oregon track club and set records in every distance from 2000 meters – 10,000 meters. In 1975 a group of Finnish athletes not including Lasse Virén came to Eugene, Oregon to compete in an NCAA Prep meet at Hayward Field. They raced Pre in the 5000 meter distance and Pre won the race with the second fastest American 5000 meter time at the time of the race. After the meet On Thursday, May 29th 1975 the American and Finnish athletes attended a party at former University of Oregon runner Geoff Hollister’s house. A little past midnight on Friday, May 30th 1975 Steve Prefontaine left the party to drive Frank Shorter to Kenny Moore’s house. Frank Shorter was an American long-distance runner who won the gold medal in the marathon at the 1972 Summer Olympics and the silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics and was a friend of Pre’s. Kenny Moore was an American athlete and journalist. At the University of Oregon, Moore was one of Bill Bowerman’s finest distance runners. Moore a two time Olympian ran in both the 1968 Mexico City and 1972 Munich Olympic marathon, finishing fourth in 1972. He was also both a friend of Frank Shorter and Pre. After dropping Shorter off at Kenny Moore’s house on Prospect Drive, Pre then descended narrow Skyline Boulevard alone, east of the university campus near Hendricks Park. While in the extended right curve near the base, his orange 1973 MGB convertible crossed the center line, jumped the curb, impacted a rock wall and flipped, trapping him underneath it.  A nearby resident was first on the scene and reported that he found Pre flat on his back, alive but pinned underneath his vehicle. By the time medics arrived however, Pre was pronounced dead at the age of 24 years. The official cause of death was traumatic asphyxiation with no other injuries playing a role. Steve Prefontaine was buried in his home town of Coos Bay, Oregon at Sunset Memorial Park. A day after his funeral in Coos Bay, a memorial service at Hayward Field in Eugene drew thousands. Eugene’s local paper Register-Guard called Pre’s death “the end of an era.” At the time of his death he was the most popular athlete in Oregon and one of the most popular in the United States. who, along with Jim Ryun, Frank Shorter, and Bill Rodgers, was credited with sparking the national running boom of the 1970s. A yearly track meet the “Prefontaine Classic” has been held at Hayward Field since 1975 in his memory. During his career Pre won 120 of his 153 races and never lost a college track race longer then a mile. With his long lasting impact on distance running and American track and field I think it is safe to say that no one ever “Stopped Pre” and that “Pre Lives” to this day.

– The Viking Runner