Steve Prefontaine Biography

Runner

Charismatic, handsome and brashly confident, Steve Prefontaine was one of the leading American distance runners of the early 1970s. He won seven NCAA championships while running for the University of Oregon from 1969-73 (three in cross-country, four in the three-mile race) and finished fourth in the 5000 meters at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Prefontaine set more than a dozen American records at distances from 2000 meters to six miles before his sudden 1975 death in a one-car accident in Eugene, Oregon.

Extra credit: Prefontaine's story was told in two unrelated feature films: Prefontaine (1997, with actor Jared Leto as Prefontaine) and Without Limits (1998, with Billy Crudup as Prefontaine). He is also the topic of the 1995 documentary Fire on the Track... The winner of the 1972 Olympic 5000 meters was Finland's Lasse Viren... At Oregon Prefontaine was coached by Bill Bowerman, who along with U of O alumnus Phil Knight designed the first Nike running shoes... In 1974 Prefontaine became the first athlete to sign a contract with Nike.

Prefontaine appears with James Dean in our loop Death By Car.

Other track and field stars include miler Roger Bannister, high jumper Dick Fosbury and Olympic medalist Babe Didrikson Zaharias.