Track & Field Heroes

Meet "Pre" – America's Greatest Running Legend and Greatest Middle Distance Hero

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

It has now been 33 years since the untimely, tragic death of America's greatest running legend and its greatest middle distance runner, Steve Prefontaine, and his legacy continues to grow as the void he filled remains open. It is rare but true to say that his legacy may never be matched again.

"Pre"—as he would become known to the world beyond Coos Bay, Oregon—was not only unbeatable on American soil but he captured the hearts of runners and spectators. Fans still swear upon pain of death that many times when Pre would step onto the Hayward Field track at the University of Oregon, the sun would burst through the overcast skies, as if announcing that something great was about to happen.

And happen it did because Steve Prefontaine was there to not just win a competitive race, he was there to entertain his faithful, who could expect a superlative effort as well as a victory.

Pre never thought of himself as the fastest runner in the race, but there is no record of a runner who ever faced him that doubted that he was the toughest, most courageous runner ever. That list included some world-record holders and his most intense rivals.

Like a lot of 5-foot, 100-pound athletes who were 8th grade benchwarmers in the more popular sports like football, Pre turned out for the cross-country team as a freshman and discovered his place in the world.

By the time to graduated from Marshfield High School, he had won 2 state cross-country titles, won state track titles in the mile and 2 mile twice, run a 4:06.0 mile in the Golden West Invitational, and set the national high school record in the 2 mile with a sensational 8:41.5 time.

As an 18 year old he qualified to represent the United States on an international tour and finished 3rd in the 5000-meter run in Europe. His 13:52.8 time was faster than any ever run by the legend of the previous generation, the great Emil Zatopek of Czechoslovakia. He held his own against the world's best, and had yet to begin his collegiate career at the University of Oregon.

In his first 3-mile race against Washington State in a dual meet at Eugene, Pre won in 13:12.8, the 7th-fastest time ever by an American and the fastest time by a U. S. runner in two years. After 21 straight collegiate meets without a loss, he was the hot-shot prodigy, on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a freshman. No one could have known that he was just getting started.

"A strange camaraderie grew up at the time among those of us who lost continually to Pre," said Don Kardong of Stanford. "We were united in our belief that no one should have the success coupled with pride that Pre had. We really wanted, I think, to see the big tree fall." But for Pre, his competitors seemed to not even be on his radar screen.

After his freshman year, Pre never lost a cross-country race, winning 3 individual NCAA championship titles. He would win 4 NCAA 3-mile titles in track, becoming the first runner to ever win 4 consecutive NCAA titles in the same event.

After his junior year at Oregon, he qualified for the U. S. Olympic team in the 5,000 meters and would finish 4th in 13:28.3 as Lasse Viren of Finland won in 13:26.4. The field literally plodded through the first two miles and sprinted the last mile. Pre would take the lead at one point but could not hold it in the end.

In preparing for the Olympic 5,000 meter, Pre had run four 1320s and three 1 milers with decreasing times. His 1320 times were 3:12, 3:09, 3:06 and 3:00, then he came back with the cut-down miles. For sharpening, he ran a solo mile under 4:00; he just walked to the line in practice, got set, then clicked off a 3:59 mile with no competition. He was ready, but he was not as experienced as the world-class runners he was facing.

Because of his relentless front-running, Pre was non-stop, and many of his opponents set personal records in losing against him.

Think about his personal best times: a 1,500 in 3:38.1, a 3,000 in 7:42.6, a 5,000 in 13:21.9, a 10,000 in 27:43.6, a mile in 3:54.6, a 2 mile in 8:18.4, a 3 mile in 12:51.4, and a 6 mile in 26:51.8, all accomplished by 1975. At his best, Pre once held every American record in the middle distance events from 2,000 meters to 10,000 meters.

Alberto Salazar, the former American-record holder in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters and marathon, had this to say about Pre: "He would not take second effort—it was not acceptable . . . I think it comes down to pride in the end. Not proud, necessarily, that you are better than everyone else, but that you are tougher than anybody else. That if you lose, you are going to make whomever you are running against pay. And that is what Pre did."

John Gillespie, a coach and fan, said "He had charisma. That word—there is something about somebody when you tell people you are going to do something, and then you go out and do it. I know of no single person who could draw people like he did."

Wendy Ray, the Hayward Field announcer for all of Pre's races there, said "He just had 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 it."

Tom Jordan, a writer for Track &Field News in the early 1970s, said "Pre would fix you with a steady gaze and give the impression that you were the most important person in his life at that instant, and that the things he was telling you were known by few others.

"It was an enormously flattering and appealing trait," said Jordan, "and contributed greatly to what came to be called his charisma."

Pre ran every day of his athletic life. He was up at 6 a.m. and out the door, running again in the afternoon at workouts. Perhaps even more incredible than the records he set and championships he won was the fact that he never missed a single day of practice or a single meet during his 4-year career at the University of Oregon. He was a force that no one wanted to reckon with, or run against.

On May 30, 1975, 24-year-old Steve Prefontaine was killed in a tragic auto accident. A memorial marks the spot of his death in Eugene, Oregon, and attracts runners and admirers to Pre's Rock, the roadside boulder where he died. Like a flame that refuses to be extinguished, Pre lives on.

The Running of the Green:

A St. Patrick's Day Toast to Irish Runners Marcus O'Sullivan and Eamonn Coghlan

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

A week before St. Patrick's Day I bought a pair of Saucony Kilkinney cross-country racing flats. They are a screaming Irish green and stick out like neon lights.

It reminded me of the Sports Illustrated magazine cover I have on my office wall recording the moment from 1994 when Eamonn Coghlan broke the tape at the finish line to become the first man over the age of 40 to run an indoor sub-four-minute mile at Madison Square Garden in the Big Apple.

Any day is a good day to raise a glass of Jameson Irish whiskey to the likes of Marcus O'Sullivan and Eamonn Coghlan, but an even better day when it is St. Patrick's Day.

Before I honor these two Irish running legends let me first acknowledge another great Irish middle distance runner: Ron Delany.

Delany ran for legendary coach Jim "Jumbo" Elliott at Villanova, a Roman Catholic university in the tradition of St. Augustine in Pennsylvania.

Delany became the seventh member of the 4-Minute-Mile Club, but still struggled to make the Irish team for the 1956 Olympics. Once he arrived in Melbourne, he qualified for the 1,500 meter final in which the Australian runner John Landy was the odds-on favorite.

Landy indeed set the pace as Delany fell in behind until the bell lap when he ran a brilliant 53.8 split to set a then Olympic record and took home Ireland's first gold medal in 24 years.

I believe this is where the great Irish middle distance tradition really got wings. I was 12 years old in 1956, Eamonn Coghlan was 4 years old and Marcus O'Sullivan was born 5 years later.

Delany would go on to win 4 successive AAU titles in the mile, another 4 Irish national titles and 3 NCAA titles for Villanova and Jumbo Elliott.

Marcus O'Sullivan could not get into any Irish universities in his day, but would quickly become a world class runner for Jumbo Elliott at Villanova.

He would win 3 world indoor 1,500 meter titles, compete for Ireland in 4 Olympic games over a 12-year period, and run 101 sub-4-miniute-miles.

O'Sullivan was generally regarded as a better indoor than outdoor miler, winning the prestigious Wanamaker Mile in the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden 5 times and setting the world indoor 1,500 meter record in 1989 with a time of 3:35.4.

His personal best for the mile—3:50.96—was set indoors in 1987, and his personal best for the 1,500 meters was 3:33.65 in 1992.

After his competitive running career, O'Sullivan returned to Villanova and continues today as Villanova's Head Coach for Cross-Country and Track.

Guess who also ran for Jumbo Elliott at Villanova? Eamonn Coghlan won 4 NCAA titles at Villanova in the 1,500 or the mile.

Coghlan ran his first sub-4-minute-mile in 1975, setting a new Irish record in 3:53.2.

Like Frank Sinatra in another venue, Eamonn Coghlan would become known as "The Chairman of the Boards" because of his success on indoor tracks. He won the Wanamaker Mile a record 7 times from 1977 to 1987 at the Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden.

Coghlan set the world record in the indoor mile at 3:50.6 in 1981 and again at 3:49.78 in 1983, a record that would stand for 14 years until Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj ran 3:48.45 in 1997. Coghlan's 1983 time still remains the fastest mile ever run in the United States, and 1 of only 3 sub-3:50 miles run on American soil.

Coghlan won a world outdoor title at 5,000 meters in 1983, but he was absolutely lights out devastating indoors. Coghlan was small compared to many of his competitors and perhaps his size gave him a miniscule advantage negotiating the tight turns on the boards indoors.

He also proved he could go up in distance, setting the record for the indoor 2,000 meters in 1987 at 4:54.07, which stood for 11 years until Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia ripped off a 4:52.86 in 1998.

Coghlan also had a bit of Irish mischievousness in him when he won the 5,000 meters at the outdoor world championships in 1983. He looked at his Russian competitor ahead of him with glee as he hit the last bend before the finish, knowing he could outsprint him, and then promptly ran the Russian into the ground as he blew by to win.

Eamonn Coghlan's personal bests are eye-popping: 800 meters (1:47.0), 1,500m (3:35.6), 1 Mile (3:49.78), 3,000m (7:36.6), 5,000m (13:19.11), 10,000 (28:09) and even the Marathon (2.25:13).

His two fourth place finishes at 1,500 meters in the 1976 Olympic Games and at 5,000 meters in the 1980 Olympic Games did nothing to enhance his sterling accomplishments.

He more than made up for it in 1994 when he returned to the boards at Harvard's Albert J. Gordon indoor track and became the first man over 40 to break 4 minutes for the mile, running an astonishing 3:58.15 indoors.

Coghlan was 41 years old on the day he set the record. He ran more than a second faster than Englishman Roger Bannister in 1954 when he became the first ever to crack the 4-minute-mile barrier on an outdoor track.

It was a stunning moment in track and field history. Here was a man 40+ who had set the world indoor record at 3:49.78 in his prime, ran 74 sub-4-minute-miles, won 11 Irish titles and spend 30 years running competitively when it came to his last lap as fans cheered him on.

Eamonn Coghlan, like so many times before, came flying off on the final turn and sprinted for the tape and, as they say, the rest is history.

"It was like old times," said Coghlan after the race. "Those last two laps brought it all back to me. My eardrums hurt from all the cheering, but my legs responded."

He cited breaking the 4-minute-mile barrier indoors at 41 as his most pleasing moment, even better than the world records and the string of Wanamaker Mile victories at the Millrose Games.

It is my fond wish that the memories of these outstanding Irish middle distance runners outlast their records. Long live Ireland (Erin Go Bragh!) and the running of the green.

Track & Field Heroes