The legacy of Pre lives on 30 years after his early death

Rich Simons, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Linda Prefontaine of tiny Coos Bay, Oregon, in the northwestern U.S. was recently on a business trip in Arkansas when she handed her card over to a potential client. The man, in his mid-50s and a former elite-level distance runner, asked Linda if she were related to the late Steve Prefontaine.

Linda said yes (she is his sister), the man's mouth dropped, tears welled in his eyes; he tried to speak, but instead began sobbing uncontrollably and could only mumble through sobs that he was sorry for being so emotional.

The man had never met the incomparable Pre, but every runner and track fan in the world of that era and the next were so profoundly inspired by the greatest American distance runner in history, that he still evokes the most intense of human emotions.

When he tragically died in his prime at the age of 24, thirty years ago this week, he held every American record from the 2,000 meters to the 10,000, but he was so much more than a runner.

His rock-star good looks, fiery passion -- that most of today's prima donnas wouldn't hear of -- and his brash, some say rebellious, spirit, were all the things that made the tens of thousands at old Hayward Field roar breathlessly "PRE, PRE" as he hit the bell lap.

Though the young man who is known to all by the first syllable of his surname was a long-haired card-carrying member of the antidisestablishmentarianism movement in the late '60s and early '70s, he was also very down-to-earth, outrageously hard-working and brutally honest to a fault.

So, no matter which side of the political divide one was on in those heady days of American sociopolitical upheaval, from flower children, Abbie Hoffman and Ken Kesey to Milhous, Agnew and Kissinger -- all loved and were inspired by Pre. The young country boy from idyllic Coos Bay, with its rolling green hills that abut the mighty Pacific Ocean at mist-covered Coos beach, came of age as the hippies were losing steam, getting into harder drugs or tinkering with these little electronic devices, which are now known as computers.

Jimi and Janis and Jim had all OD-ed, Mama Cass choked on a ham sandwich and the Beatles had gone their separate ways. A generation of people needed something to be proud of besides Walter Cronkite announcing another illegal carpet bombing of a Cambodian village or another landslide victory by Nixon, and Pre was the answer the savior. If he had run for president in 1972, he would have beaten Tricky Dicky in a landslide.

He got everyone to tune in, turn on and yell PRE as he sprinted like a madman down the back stretch. No one who saw Pre run ever forgot him; he was arguably the most popular track athlete in the world. In Oregon he had attained god-like status, when Pre ran, the screaming and stomping in the stadium was deafening.

In the words of the Prefontaine Classic meet director Tom Jordan,the race started, there was the rhythmic clapping and the stomping of the feet. Every time he came around, there was this `boom, boom, boom' off the West Grandstand. It gave me chills. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up."

He ran the third best time in history over 5,000 meters in the U.S. trials in 1972. At the age of 21 with a great shot at gold in the Munich Olympics, he was utterly devastated after the Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 Israelis in the Olympic village near his block. He protested that he did not want to run as a gesture of respect.

The German authorities threatened sanctions against the whole U.S. team, so he ran, but his heart was not in it and he finished fourth as three of track's all-time greats passed him in the final 100 meters: Veterans Lasse Viren of Finland, Mohamed Gammoudi of Tunisia and Ian Stewart of Great Britain.

It has been posited that he wanted to show the world that he was the best, he led nearly the whole race until the final 100, then "allowed" the others to pass so he would not get a medal and be forced to shake hands on the medal podium with any of the authorities, American or German.

He returned home disillusioned, but determined that he would never lose another race under any circumstances. In 1974, he set eight American records and is still the only man to ever win every race he ran in college, on the track and in cross country! He dedicated himself to bigger causes, exposed amateurism for the sham that it was and became the self-appointed "voice of the athlete", railing against the establishment and officials.

Before his tragic death on May 30, 1975, he was in prime shape for the 1976 Olympics, but tragically died as his MG convertible flipped over around a sharp turn after a night of celebrating another victory.

* In his words * "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."
* "Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it."
* "I don't just go out there and run. I like to give people watching something exciting."
* "I'm going to work it so that it's a pure guts race at the end, and if it is, I am the only one who can win it."

*

On Sunday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, where he graduated from university, "the greatest distance running field ever assembled" will go head to head in the Prefontaine Classic's Pre 2-Mile race. It should be a doozy. Jeremy Wariner (400 meter gold medalist) and Paula Radcliffe (marathon world record holder) will also run. Wariner in his specialty against a host of other Olympic and World Championship medalists.

And Radcliff will run the 1,500 as Pre's two sisters and Mom look on. Call your local cable or satellite provider and demand that they get it on TV here!