Steve Prefontaine Story

you he came here to build his fire stick by stick stride by stride breath after scorching breath always faster hotter higher we came here to feel that fire he just had that whatever that is I don't know actors have it singers have it some people have it some people don't most people don't he had a lot of he was the benchmark that we all tried to you know measure ourselves against he was so ferociously competitive in his sport he understood that he was getting close to the limits in ways that few people do of all the great athletes that have worn our products on the field of battle we made a statue of only one of them and I was Steve Prefontaine to us he was pre it was more than a name that was a condition a fanfare a heralding of something above sportin off the track pre pre pre no one saw him ever forgot him arms and legs pumping out of that last turn lips pulled back eyes shooting up the scoreboard clock not at the finish line at the time pre pre pre he held all seven American records from two to ten thousand liters at 21 he challenged the world in one of the greatest Olympic races of all time and later turned down a fortune for a shot at the world record the story goes that he told the race promoter to keep it I run best when I run free pre never made it to that race this morning one of America's finest distance runner Steve Prefontaine was killed in automobile accident in Eugene Oregon he died a little more than four hours after he had run the second fastest 5,000 meters in American history he was 24 years old the fact that he died so young meant I think that that were left with with just a feeling of you know so much unfilled talent there's so much unfilled promise so much that could have happened you know I'll never forget when I heard that Steve Prefontaine had been killed it was like just just I just felt sick I felt sick to my stomach and just could not believe it I remember going to track practice that day just it was like this funeral and I mean everybody was talking about everyone was blown away and the same the same thing happened when John Lennon was killed the same kind of feeling of anyone but them you it was the Golden Age of track and field the 60s runners rose up everywhere these men were heroes spectators flocked to see what was the world's second most popular sport in America the crowds came here to our it is Hayward Field the Carnegie Hall of track records are carved into these old bleachers three Olympic Trials have been heavier plus a slew of national championships how brittle Salazar rentier and Hillary runner Edwin Moses Carl Lewis Mary Decker slain they all ran here all cheer Darla Aragon fans all univille but only one is absolutely unforgettable you can't understand Steve Prefontaine without understanding where he came from Coos Bay Oregon is lumber country from the hillside shriek of the saws to the Thunder of the docks things have always been tough in Coos Bay citizens get tougher get out ray Prefontaine was a welder and part endure in the mills during World War two he'd met his wife in Germany and brought her home to the Oregon coast ray enough Frida had three children Nita Steve and Linda Steve was the one that was always chasing the dog charging out in the rain without a jacket always looking for some way to prove he was as tough as anyone in Coos Bay that pretty much meant sports but in junior high young Prefontaine was told he was too small for the head-to-head kind of sports and that set him small drew you either got involved in athletics or you got involved in drugs and something a little less desirable and and he's always talked about he could have gone the other way but he found something that he was good at and loved and the rest is history he fanned and fed that smolder running the goons along the docks on the cinders he ran through the town when mussels scream and lungs begged for mercy he was hot to see what those big jocks were made of when they had to go shoulder to shoulder instead of head to head one day he even challenged the football team to scrimmage under this condition they all had to run a 10k first this brashness flared at age 16 his goals were mighty for a boy from Coos Bay I'll run a real epic Sunday he tell everybody he would listen well I was working and we didn't see too many meets and one day a lady came and said mrs. Prefontaine you should go to the meets your son it's Olympic stuff I still remember the words any Jean 90 miles inland plenty of Olympic dreams have been realized bargain assistant track coach Bill Dillinger at competed in three Olympic Games Dillinger's head coach was the legendary Bill Bowerman he led three Oregon teams to NCAA Championships a brilliant blunt innovative stubborn Oregon original Bowerman had been a single wing quarterback in a quarter mile for Oregon's first great track coach Bill Hayward as a major in World War two he had negotiated the surrender of an entire as the University of Oregon track coach Bowerman quickly made his reputation as a shaper of Champions he tinkered with every aspect of performance he experimented with all-weather track surfaces he taught himself cobbling and made feather-light racing spikes for his men one of these men is Phil Knight together they started a small shoe company it would become bigger impressed by New Zealand's great distance runners Bauman went down under the visit of their coach Arthur Lydiard there he saw great numbers of citizens out running our as Lydiard called it jogging he was real big on jogging when he came back from New Zealand and thought that it had application in the United States and I was somewhat skeptical it says you'll never get Americans to do all that and I was one of those things I was very happy to be wrong about but there was different business on Bowerman's mind in the fall of 1968 it was that little Hellcat on the coast Prefontaine he sent Dillinger to watch him run that fall I went to the state cross country mean it would have been priest junior year in high school I had my binoculars and I was probably a good half mile seven hundred yards away from the start and I saw this guy as they were called to the line to the set position but it was the look in his eyes even from a half-mile distance that the intensity that I saw in his face as the gun went off that I thought that's got to be pre in the spring of 1969 the smaller bloomed the flame Prefontaine set a national high school two-mile record that would stand the rest of his life he was a statewide star and recruiters from colleges across the country clamored for his attention but pre couldn't understand why the Oregon head coach wasn't drowning healing cards and letters the fact was Bill Bowerman hated recruiting considered himself a teacher a guru and preferred students who sought him out to prima donnas who needed to be ported a letter from Baumann was rare somebody said why don't why didn't you pay more attention to pre well I paid about as much attention as I would pay to anybody because you start making love to some high school kid too early and he's had to gets bigger and bigger one of his heroes naturally was bill barman the University of Oregon I mean when he finally got the letter from bill Berman that just absolutely blew his mind I mean that their evidence everything if I join them the tail kisses I'm just another donkey looking for another body to come out and run here if I want to teach him anything if I have something to offer him we'll find that out after he gets here in freeze case Dominic is only like that nutter but Prefontaine wanted to find out a few things before you reach Dorothy and Jilly who doesn't shout at the u.s. national team it was a long shot at best I noticed this this little kid hanging around the athletes in the dorm where everybody was housed and he seemed to be especially hanging around the distance runners maybe Jerry Lindgren and Jack bachelor and Frank Shorter and but he was just a little kid you know obviously just somebody out there getting autographs or something you heard the words about this high school kid from Oregon and he had a chance to make the team and I really didn't know who he was I was a senior in college at the time so I'm going hey pretty interesting this this young kid is pretty darn good because I recollect you ran about eight 42 for two miles at the time which incidentally at that time was faster than I had run for two miles so I was impressed two nights later I saw him again and the shadows of the stadium is in the evening as the 5000 meter race is going to start he's standing beside the competitors and he's right in the middle of it he's got his Marshfield high uniform on I said oh my god that's the pre-funding in this particular race Tracy Smith and Jerry Lindgren finished in a dead heat for first they turned at the finish line and to watch who was finishing behind them and making the team and who should they see but this young man from Coos Bay the future running up up at them first of all here's a freshman that comes in he's a number one guy in the whole team I'll have to admit there was some jealousy towards that and here's an 18 year old kid coming in that year he gets front cover Sports Illustrated pretty head a little bit that arrogance is no doubt about it it was 1969 and there was great division on the Oregon campus people were taking sides Prefontaine as opinionated as anyone would wage his protests on the practice field Bowerman was the establishment I said pretty next week I want you to run the two-mile I was before we had the three mile or the five thousand he says I don't run the two mile and he turned and walked off and I said come back here when I tell you something where are you going to run next week and he turned to walk off again and he got about three steps but he came back and said well I'll run the two mile but I'm not gonna like it and he didn't like it but he broke the school record his new Oregon teammates weren't sure what to make of this cocky Coos Bay kid especially freshman classmate Mac Wilkins who didn't take well to prefontaine's overflowing self-regard I called him world and and that was short for world famous you come to college as a freshman and you've been on the national team and you have your USA national sweats which is that's as good as gold if your track athlete in and you're the hero of the town and you've been to Europe competing your world famous the time that Prefontaine came to en 69 so much preceded him I really think set the stage and he had the all of our men's Footwear development so shoes were really getting better the tracks were definitely getting faster with the experimentation builded with all leather surfaces so you're getting the benefit of a faster track and with garments jogging classes you had a very educated crowd so Steve showed up with all this maybe not seeming to fit together with the other than the fact that Bowerman was kind of in the middle of it all he was the instigator he was the catalyst he was he was the promoter but now you really had somebody to promote all this around then you began to realize this guy is bigger than life I mean there's something about him that has this ability to absorb all this energy is electricity this in the stands and you were part of it I mean you were part of that electricity you were helping provide some of that that was going down to him and he was providing it back up to you you remember how loud it was in canvas the left-half my little three Ryan right that's it yeah because it was like that that when he came out on the field about an hour before his race to run against Prix in Oregon was a mistake if you really thought you were going to try to win because pre not only had confidence but he inhabited races and competition so much that you even though you didn't want were intimidated by his aura I was in his own I wasn't really thinking about him his aura I was thinking about my aura and putting it to his aura well I'd like to break some more records and I'm going to LA Oakland in two weeks to run against George Young rules the world's record in two mile and the Russian who beat me this summer in Leningrad and I'm looking forward to racing those two long-term goals still 72 olympics long term goal still 72 olympics yes as he closed in on his Olympic green the kid was becoming the man of American track in one stretch he won 21 straight college meets he broke the American 5000 3000 meter records he was the n-c-double-a cross country champion going away burning legends the light said world record-holder jermiah fighting his way to their inside lane surging out ahead of the pack challenging those who are in his way loving those who understood connecting with his fans like no one else everyone it was like someone meeting meeting a rock star I mean for me at that age yeah Prefontaine could not talk could not get eye contact you know you know dry mouth just it's like this is this is my aisle this is what I would like to do to be able to run like free and yet I was a sad pathetic joke pre was always the first to speak out against what he saw as unfairness the world of track and field in the early 1970s gave him a big target I think maybe that's the thing that bothered him the most was hypocrisy there was there's there's a lot of it anyway in life and there was Sun there was a lot in the leadership of track and field at that time and you know he he called a spade a spade he didn't pull punches and that's something I always admired he wasn't politically correct he didn't know what that meant you know he was sort of the villain I mean in Delano he ripped Los Angeles about the smog and I hated here and I can't run here and why does anybody run here and then people would come out and watch him he was it turned out to be quite a showman showman hero rebel Prefontaine lived on the edge he was always moving through life in the fast lane he broke all the stereotypes of distance runners we were like salt and pepper you know I was I was a soul I was the bland person I was hurted I was married at the time I was not a party goer and Steve was the pepper he was the spice he was outgoing extroverted single putting the moves on everybody and and we were just like mutton Jeff fries up front personality was an extinction in his running style he was a classic front runner so he had good sprinting speed others were faster to have the best chance of winning he had to break free of his competition before the homestretch so he trained twice a day every day he trained to begin a long killing Drive that as much as a mile to go he trained to force himself into more pain than any pursuit of the day and I could carry his maximum effort longer and harder than most people could and anybody got in a race with him knew that it was they were going to be blood on the track the time it was true because pretty was going to run as hard as he could if they wanted to beat him I read that thing told me one time he said you know somebody may beat me but they're going to believe the do it everything he lived for breathed believed in dreamed of was running Frank Shorter Jack Bachelor myself and a number of other athletes of that era who were distance runners had other things in our lives I couldn't understand why one of the best looking girls on campus would come up and ask him for a date two weeks down the road and he said well I don't know I have to check my schedule but basically all this behavior that may have been abrasive or seemed cocky was it was just him being focused and being honest and nobody else was that focused or that intense yeah if you're a runner you're never completely satisfied unless you get a world's record and I think it's a good indication of what I'm going to be doing this spring I hope it's a good indication this is my first meet of the new year so that's not a bad way to start off the new year again did you have the national record in mind or resistive tune up for the trials well to tell you the truth my grandmother went in the hospital two nights ago three nights ago and I went and saw her Friday morning before I headed up towards Portland and I told her I was going to dedicate this race to her and I told her I was gonna break the American record for you did it in style well I hope so it's it's not the fastest time in the world but it's in there anyway what about the trials or is this a good tune-up for you do you think they get to speed in they're very good in 1972 the Olympic Trials at Hayward Field with boast a strong field of Olympic hopefuls 800 meter world record million Daytrotter world record helicopter Bob Seger Phil recognized Jim Ryun world record shot Twitter Brian old Fiat of American record holder Frank Shorter your mother pack the Heywood stands but these were priests people and the electricity was building for prefontaine's 5000 meter showdown with a tough and experienced Georgia at one time I remember standing in the middle of the field and yelling at three as loud as they could and not being able to kill myself to become a deafening noise that you can even hear yourself please relentless pace left Yahoo far behind it was a new American record of 13 22 8 just 6 seconds off the world mark in celebration he grabbed a stop free t-shirt and blazed a victory lap before the dazzled and frenzied crowd your strategy this evening was it to go as fast as you could and were you able to do that it was actually slow at the that's the two-mile mark I supposed to be 8:40 and I was 846 so it was slow I realized I better pick up the pace otherwise something might happen just foremost in your mind I'm unit well there's a lot of them there's gonna be 12 people in the final event and if I'm there was gonna be 12 people could win how do you feel you're number one now well all I can say is I hope I can stay fit and if I were in one like this in Munich I think I'm gonna be pretty hard to stop could anyone stop free that would be a question soon answered immunity for the world's toughest trailers awaited the outspoken kid from America Steve always sounded confident he would not say well I'm just gonna wait and see what happens he would get out there and and make predictions and name names you know he'd shoot off his mouth and then it would end up running in Europe and he'd wonder how the hell it got there and it wasn't quite what he said it wasn't quite what he meant I mean he attacked the whole the whole amateur athletics structure every other day they will be catalyzing and finish papers and you know it was a interview of Steve Prefontaine and he said that I Connor I can run the last last mile for minutes and I couldn't win 5,000 meters I certainly always felt that but the problem he had was he didn't come in rice's enough and I felt that that he was very very good in America and I can always remember talking to him later in Munich for sure and he said to me I'll run inside four minutes for the last mile and I always got the impression that he thought he was the only one that could run inside four minutes for the last mile whereas I knew I could but I also need four others that could as well well you can you can look at it two ways you can go over and get internationally and you can run against these people and you know what to expect from them and you know what they can do and then they'll know what you can do or you can stay away from them and then you can let them wonder in July of 1972 Prefontaine would leave his adoring us fans and take his pre Olympic training to Europe their series of pre-olympic tune-up meets free would set fire to get another American record this Thailand foreign singers had a broken the world record that I had me run the 1500 last night he played and most of the innocence we were in Oslo Norway and I was sitting up in the stands and he environment were out doing a workout all by themselves in Oslo Stadium and Steve went out and for his warmth he warmed up obviously the first thing he did in a workout was he paced himself to a four-minute mile and he went out very even split I had to stop Washington was a 62 flat 3 flat I think it was 400 point something and then he did a ladder then he did his work out but it was it was like was he ready for the Olympics in 72 he sure was midway through the 20th Summer Games in Munich all Olympic innocents went up in flames the Olympics would be forever changed there are men with guns beginning to train those guns on the rooms where the two heads were sticking out a moment ago of the Arab guerilla lookouts this is happening now if you can possibly believe that at the games of the 20th Olympiad seven Palestinian terrorists has slipped into the Olympic Village invaded Israel's wrestling teams quarters kills two team members and took nine more hostage the terrorists airlifted the hostages to a small airport their German sharpshooters opened fire but the terrorists detonated their explosives all hostages were killed the eyes of the world once reserved for national spirit fell upon grief and terror the remaining Olympic events were postponed for a day every athlete hadn't searched his heart for the courage to go on he had the courage but his stride had been broken they closed off the Olympic Village I remember going to one of the isolated areas in the Olympic Village and having pre climb over the fence and get out of there I remember one day taking him into Austria the day of the kidnapping just to get him away from it and he was quite upset in fact it felt like he did not want to run in the Olympics that it this is not what the Olympics were about the initial reaction amongst all of us we were all rooming together in the same room we could look out from our balcony and see the the room where all the Israelis had been housed we could see the masked gunman outside the rooms on their balconies we all would stand there and look over on that day and we thought our Leone that you know nothing's worth this nothing's worth a human life you know I felt very very bad very emotional and it was very easy for me to make a decision to go home I mean the Germans called it at the height of the shmita which means that the happy happy games was supposed to be one party well I think if you have a party and people get killed you don't they don't continue the party took some real talking to try and get him in a frame of mind for racing and as I told him there are some guys you're going to be racing they're going to use this as an advance to run against people like you it's going to be shook up over this had the terrorists spoiled it all for us and the resulting answer among all the athletes was no we're going to continue with this we're not going to let the terrorists steal this from us but it is Prefontaine and Putin's setting the pace we'll have to catch them not Bob today's correspondent pretty good waiting for his Olympic Odyssey only two letters from each heat would be guaranteed a place in the finals three great runners right now and only two of them can be sure the final Prefontaine and Budiman shared the lead eventually leaving our path behind unsure of securing a position in the final pre saved himself and posted in bow Peterman's finished with an Olympic record he liked very much due to to race and also to take the pace take the pace and he's never waiting five meters always happened was passing very quickly and straightaway not looking after going going going gone there are the two men who moved to the final a mill filament of Belgium Steve Prefontaine of the United step one has been to win the 5000 final Prefontaine had to be to fear the powerful and experienced men with diverse running styles the frontrunner would force the pace an attempt to outlast the kicker's who had speed and reserved for a final blast at the finish line the favorite was lasse Viren of Finland but already won the 10,000 and world-record time Steve Prefontaine will be the Olympic 5000 meter champion I think he will break the world's record at 5,000 meters but I think he will have to do it in Montreal because today Steve Prefontaine 21 years old is running up against the very big boys but one thing is for sure that at that period there were some very very classy individuals in the five and ten thousand meters around 14 and Viren put him ins Prefontaine myself Stewart there was so many characters in it larger than life people in it all all young pretenders you know waiting to take over and wanting to you know wanting to be the best and they were the superstars of the track and there's no question about that I think that Stewart's prediction of a last mile in four minutes is not unrealistic that is what Steve Prefontaine will have to run if he's going to win this event today and that was how I saw it really I thought it'll be hard it will be a very fast race and it would probably be down to Vienna myself with Prefontaine trying to chase us down in the last kilometer Prefontaine told me the other night or about a week ago standing in the lobby of the Sheraton Munchen Hotel he said what I'm going to try to do is work it out so it'll be a pure guts race at the end and if it is I'm the only one who can win I certainly felt that Steve Prefontaine was very capable of winning that race I mean he was he had runs some really capable races that summer leading up to that and I just felt that there were other certainly outstanding runners but that he could do it now David Bedford has decided to get into it boy what strategy must be going out there this is this is the thinking time isn't it nobody was thinking during that first mile I was stunned I was appalled at how they walked through two miles and just as right now I was speechless I kept yelling at the TV for Steve run take the lead or whatever go for it and Steve Prefontaine is going to take the lead one mile to go four laps to go that's it free has got to run that four-minute mile now he's got to know man at the age of 21 has ever won this long tough and thinking man's race the 5,000 meters Viren taking the lead Viren up there ahead of steep Prefontaine and Stewart here comes Camus Dee up even with them they're really gonna pick up these next phases now this is a pretty RINs moment this is when Viren makes his long drive failed at the ecole last they already had done the record though he had confidence on his his kick - Wow but he he didn't have a specific tactic it hasn't wanted to be ready when when the race really starts Prefontaine going for the lead again it's become a tense tool now this this could be a great race a historic race let's see if it develops that way Korea's running a gutsy race what a kick he's putting on this is six hundred yards to go and he's pulling an all-out kick I always thought that the type of runner he was he was going to be difficult to beat but because of the type of running he was people like myself and certainly Varenne we would be very difficult for him to beat because we were pretty strong we were very fast it's going to be last lap fight commodious booth in the third here is Baron going for the lead it seems impossible the Prefontaine can out kick Baron Orca moody bottom is no place body then will not be a factor with his favor moody s kuvira is going for his second gold medal of the games mohammed gammoudi is right with him and so is Steve Prefontaine the kid is showing all the guts in the world he's hanging in there with the kickers me Fontaine going for the lead with Camus knee Piron is still there pick up Prefontaine the fact that he could go there with no experience being his youth that he had and run that tough impressed me I mean I took me three Olympics to have the attitude that he had in his first Olympics he is running a great race what Ferren second gold medal and I think he's going to win it but the Ludicolo a cake and here comes Prefontaine for the time and it was Ian Stewart beating out Steve Prefontaine for the burns pedal as Prefontaine nearly collapsed in the last five meters you look back at race in retrospect he could have been the bronze medalist if he had enough and made the burst down the backstretch when he went by those guys as well he doesn't lack for courage and I said I just hope he hasn't gone out too soon and and of course he had but you know he was going to die trying that he would rather have gone for the gold and tried for that and then get Asher bronze and that just really typify demand now I stand by what ten or fifteen metres from another last Bend time pass through Fontaine is straight in fairness to Prefontaine he ran better than I did that day I probably didn't deserve to get a medal really not the way I run he was crestfallen and he was just crushed he said I've got nothing to say and he started off and all of a sudden my it was just like this explosion inside of my head and I said hey wait a minute I said he said what do you mean I said look you got to talk to me says I don't have to talk to you and I said hey wait what about all those people back in Eugene he says what do you mean I said that the people in Hayward Field and pries people I said they've lived this race with you I said they can understand what happened and we've got to talk and he said well I don't know I don't know what to say and I said well let's talk about the race I said how how bad did you do I said how old are you and I was just my mind was just I just had to keep him going because I he could just walk off and I couldn't catch him obviously as tired as he was I still couldn't catch it so he I said how old are you and he said 21 or 22 I don't really remember what he was and I said and so you finished fourth in the world at that age how bad is that well he said that's not too bad and I said did you run for third or second no you ran to win you took the lead with a mile to go you ran your butt off and you finished fourth how bad is that well no it wasn't that bad what he needed was somebody to put his their arm around him to kind of hug him and say it's okay we understand please people understand and I was sort of the emissary for that I guess and so goodness he started talking and 20 minutes later he was all pumped up again and I remember Dave Bedford walking by and he shouted at Bedford he said I'll see you in Montreal and I'll kick your butt we both knew on the right day we could have won it we didn't we knew that there would be other days in the future seventy-six wasn't that far guy we were both young with our whole careers in front of us Prefontaine returned to Oregon without an Olympic medal he'd gone to the edge and over and now he'd have to find his way back again this is what Darwin had prepared him for the real challenge is in the losing and how you pick yourself up please fire had been dampened some but the coals inside were just beginning to burn I think what happened to him in the Olympics opened up his eyes matured him the long the longer hair and the sideburns where the rebellious wasn't going to conform any more to what he thought he was supposed to do or act or say and I think that change in his appearance was a change that was going on inside of him and I suppose some of that is was maturing and probably that I'm going to get you next time certainly he could bat those big brown eyes and twirl that little mustache and and you certainly knew that there was a pursuit in progress and I like that that I felt that here's this guy this stallion of a runner that will take the time to encourage me it's kind of a novice of a runner more popular than ever please final season at Oregon is brilliant he set the American record in the six mile grande the best ever collegiate distance number he won his fourth NC double-a three mile title a feat never before accomplished by collegiate runner I said pre of all your American records the one I like the best is the fact that you came to Oregon spent four years with never missing a workout four years without ever missing a race he says coach I got to tell you there was a few Saturday mornings when I really didn't feel like running but and he said there were a few races where I had a sore throat or coal and I knew if I told you you wouldn't let me race I wouldn't tell you his college days behind him pre fumed over the predicament of the American track athletes it was the AAU that would feel the brunt of his anger though pre-read tens of thousands of paying fans to stadiums all over the world he lived on food stamps travel expenses and the AAA use allowance of $3 a day it was like The Grapes of Wrath as track but it's what this trailer I was very surprised when I when I you know came to Eugene and confiding in me that he was on food chances like one of the world's best athletes and it was quite quite a contradiction so but and actually quite a testimony to the way he was and he was fine he was a true warrior you know the thing I thought about him is what he did is he hung it all out all the time I mean the race that I remember the most the race against gave water to raise money for the building stadium he sets himself up as the perfect rabbit and he said you know he said why don't you come up to Eugene before we go over to the Scandinavia and we'll run a mile together and we'll try for the world record he says I'll lead you on the way you'll have a great time this was five days before the race was to be held and within a five day period of time they put together a beautiful race major me the stands were simply packed you know you're in freeze backyard and to get on his home turf and to run against him was was just a thrill and Steve led the whole race until 200 meters to go when he said we'll go after the world record he put me in a great position to for for a great time here Steve you know the Alton and pace setter was going charging ahead and still running a great time and he obviously wanted to win - you couldn't run with Dave Waddell in that situation and he knew it he set himself up set Waddell up and got nailed and everybody went home happy and it was a how many of us had that kind of guts and that kind of presence to do that raga the 800 meter world-record holder but just missed for my record he was just a second behind like bad for a guy who wasn't supposed to be a matter Steve forced me to be a rebel we were outside of the governing body we were supposed to run in an AAU meet and Germany and Italy Russia and they started out in Africa and we bypassed the African meets and and I can remember feeling so proud when I'd walk into the team meeting when we gathered together in Germany with Steve and here Steve and I are walking in you know in open defiance of the AAU they're saying you better get down here or else he's off the track shots that the AAU became more public to hell with a love of country he was quoted the u.s. expects us to win medals at the Olympics then forgets about us the other three years when you'd go to a European track meet and say an obscure Italian hurdler would come up and say hey let's let's go get our money and go partying we'd go what money and we'd find out that our Federation was getting our appearance money and athletes from other countries were getting theirs pre was an angry voice for athletes right he was always in trouble with AAU officials he really grabbed that situation by the balls literally and and confronted the AAU these this old Grand Marshal school of a bunch of old stuffies and brought up some real uncomfortable situations they tried to tell him which races to run and if they weren't the races against the very finest competition if they wanted to run dual meets against Pole and then he wanted to run against New Zealanders or fins and very few as they got better and better who could give him a good race then we had a conflict over the next year three would set five new records despite his through with the a a uses the most popular track athlete in the world well I don't feel like any worse off than I have been in the past I've caused them probably a lot of embarrassment and a lot of trouble but I'm not really trying to get under anybody's skin I'm just trying to bring the problems to a to a head and an understanding to make the people of this country realize what's happening in amateur athletics and what's happening is that amateurs do not have the same benefits of let's say the Europeans and I just like to bring this to the acknowledgement of the public running doesn't pay your bills so you've got to make a lot of sacrifices to be an amateur sport in this country considering it so professionally oriented he really not only set a tone for his sport for me at least he set a tone for this whole company that ought to wake up the country club I am NOT a role model people are making me nervous got another side and that's making me nervous you're talking 1973 Nike as a brand was only a year old Steve joined us at that time and we were all the early pioneers the steve was really the catalyst I mean he was the reason that we were in business he was not only demanding on himself he was depending on anybody was around him including me and that he was constantly demanding you know better and better shoes for him for himself and for the running community when Prefontaine joined Nike the company was losing $50,000 a year and Steve was being paid in shoes his title was national public relations manager there couldn't have been a more perfect athlete than Steve for Nike because he had a certain level rebel in him no question about it he wasn't a rebel without a cause he's were able with a cost the ITA the new professional track circuit offered three two hundred thousand dollars to join its ranks but that would mean sacrificing his amateur status any world records would be dismissed and he would forfeit his opportunity to return to the Olympics he told the promoter I had too much unfinished business to take care of at spring he started taking care of that business for the world class 10k he was gunning for 76 and Montreal in May of 1975 Prefontaine swirled again outside the AAU Rules he brought the finished national team to Oregon for a series of meets he was hoping for a rematch with lasse Viren at Hayward Field it was really good for him to see that the other aspect to track and field that it doesn't it isn't just you show up and run a race and that's all there is to it on the other hand I think his main motivation for that finish tour was to get the Finns over here during his prime season and just drum him into the track and of course at the last moment Viren wasn't able to make it and that kind of soured him a bit but being pre he recovered and it was a very successful tour well we had a very simple telephone call he called up and said gee I really need you to come out and run this this race because barons backed out and he's not going to be there and my response was sure despite previous cancellation and the stress of organizing the meets he just missed the American record easily outdistance in short I felt pretty incidental really in that last race even though I finished second you know I realized at that point at that particular distance he was he was beyond me I wasn't going to be able to beat him I think Steve had had winning a gold medal in 76 as his goal he probably would have gotten down around 352 for the mile or 351 and that would have been pretty intimidating going into the Olympic Games for anybody thinking they they were up against a 351 Milan he was very quick to go from one victory to another challenge it was not a great celebrator he was a great party guy it was a great celebration of life so it was fun to see in that night really enjoying what had happened Mac Wilkins would also shine in that me beating can take camera the number one ranked discus thrower in the world my god I finally got that Prefontaine I beat him you know I'm gonna get the headlines and the attention and finally people will appreciate me and you know sadly but ironically he topped that one Eugene Oregon one of America's best hopes for the 1976 Olympics long-distance runner Steve creepy is dead for Fontaine killed early this morning with his carpets over Prefontaine with Scottie poor there was a party at Jeff Hollister's at night and I do I remember remarking to myself at the time how relaxed he was i relieved he was he really was able to enjoy things i thought better than it seemed to mark a real change in him and i had to go home early but my last memory of him was sitting back and talking with his folks about simple things crabbing fishing life simple life and ten it's it's not a bad last memory had a good time at the party but there was nothing unusual about him or me in fact we were continuing this conversation we've been having often on all evening about how the success of this the finished meat would perhaps play into some revamping of the amateur rules in the United States I said good night to him and we may have even talked about running the next day and and I went to sleep actually feeling very good like like it had been a great evening and lo and behold I got awakened early the next morning by Kenny morning told me that Steve had died heading down the hill and he drove off down the hill and about a minute later came around this curve and for some reason took such a hard left that he hit the curb here hit the hit the stone embankment and flipped over on top of me it was obvious to me that somebody had written him off the road that he'd come around this turn and somebody had made him veer off and it was just as I remember it the bad luck I haven't that car configured the way it was that it rolled over on top of him you know the old saying that life isn't fair can be very very true I mean it just was not fair I remember the last words he saw him at the bowing away party for the Finns he said life careful and it was kind of late and veedol we were tired and we looked at savage and I said hey you better quit and take a rest and Judy I don't look at the time it was 12:30 so I have a feeling that's a time Steve died that his son must have been with us he was probably the most outspoken honest competitive man on and off the track that we that certainly I've ever known and his loss to our community and and to Oregon track and to American track as just one that it's just very difficult to estimate after the memorial service at Hayward Field I was sitting in the West East stands and fairly high up and or I'll tell you I think I was probably the last one to leave the stadium what I couldn't couldn't go you know I at the time I had a sense of loss because who was a guy that I kind of knew fairly well but not that well I don't think anybody knew him that well and now that I look back on it it's it's even more a sense of loss because I really feel like we had a lot in common I guess what made me so sad was that he's me you know even though he's maybe he's cocky and maybe I'm not as cocky or he's different than me there's more of him that's like me then it's not like me the 20-mile runs on Sunday the the heart intervals I mean that stuff were brothers that way he always made the tempo sweet you know the tough ways and he taught us a lot in doing so even today decades later we still follow along freeze trail his footprints defiant to the blowing sand his luckily image burning in the sunlight between trees and lakes bounding through the waves a shadow marking the docks and booze his spirits still blazing the track equi understand although there's a lot of factors that make me run over the biggest one is that I enjoy it I have acquired an enjoyment for it after so many years of running it's part of my life now another reason would have to be the Olympic Games and trying for a gold medal and the third thing would have to be competition I love to compete against people I'm not just track and field but almost anything for me at least the morale of Steve Prefontaine is essentially fighting the good fight he was probably one of the bravest and he might eventually be in the best he's probably the greatest runner American ever had because he never had his day not that's the sad thing his aggressiveness his tenacity his his vision of what's right perceptually for the athletes would have made things different today his life in a track-and-field since has changed and I hope Steve even was alive you would have Chetan seen what happened today and you see the fruit of what he was fighting for for the athletes in this country and all over the world was around nineteen eighties that we had the cascade runoff I would say that some athletes buckled or and you know I in my own dreams which may be free had been around and despite their under the table backdoor agreements between certain lead athlete sand you Knowland Cassell maybe free would have been there and said no this is not right watching him race to me it you can see him push you can just see that desire you he's fading away and push it deeper and deep and I believe he breaks his pain threshold by that way and continues going to go faster and that's what I would like if I could do anything like and that's what I'd like and it seemed like whenever he came out onto the track the Sun came out whatever gave him all of the drive I don't know but I'd like to buy it sell it when he won the NCAA after ripping his toe up he caught his toe on her butt bolt sticking up out of the concrete around a swimming pool I mean it was a pretty bad injury and I would have kept most people from running and didn't Facebook bid I mean if pre was awfully tough I mean his best friend could be someone in the penitentiary or someone some doctor or lawyer upstairs or whatever but he didn't classify them as being different they were all his people he is the real James Dean James Dean was playing Prefontaine before Prefontaine but he was playing the role Steve was the authentic 100% real thing eighth Steve had developed and being a force in the 76 Olympics you landed before him of course being a great thing but it also meant a lot for business running in the United States American distance earning lost their number one profile he was normally a good runner but he was also a person who can bring publicity to a sport that you know at some time needed publicity so I think American distance from you lost both a good runner and someone loved it had been valuable to the sport to his character and through the way he was I was on a run him one time with Steve and he and I were running down Franklin Boulevard and I jokingly referred to him as the Muhammad Ali of track and he kind of mumbled something to me at that time that I was kind of joking with him but that in a joking sense it was a compliment because you know as you know he's very talking he but he could back his words up we just like just like Ollie what's really awesome Levski was how tough he was you know mentally tough physically tough like thing as an Oregonian he's a walker he belongs when to stomp her family you know sometimes a great notion oh i he'd probably be in the oregon Congress right now being really pissed off about the education of kids in Oregon the way things are running just kind of generally mad about all that kind of stuff woman's the last time you nearly did your best and you got through and you said God I did my best that's deep refund he got on the track he did his best every time every day he showed up every day he worked out every day and the results was it was the best it was what a message you

Channel: Chris Chauncey

Views: 267,480

Rating: 4.8873959 out of 5

Keywords: Steve, Prefontaine, Story

Id: 5ghnepo096Q

Length: 57min 58sec (3478 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 29 2012