Steve Roland Prefontaine

Steve Prefontaine, America's finest distance runner and an outspoken critic of the track and field establishment, died early yesterday morning in an automobile accident in Eugene, Ore.

The 24‐year‐old Prefontaine had won a 5,000‐meter race about four hours before at Hayward Field in Eugene, his favorite track. He then attended a party for six Finnish athletes he had brought to America to compete. After taking a woman friend home, he was driving on a residential street at about 12:30 A.M. His convertible jumped a curb, hit a rock embankment and flipped. Prefontaine was pinned under the car.

The 5‐foot‐9‐inch, 145‐pound Prefontaine, one of the most popular trackmen, was born in Coos Bay, Ore., and confined most of his competitive career to the West Coast. He held every American outdoor distance record above 2,000 meters, finished fourth in the 5,000 at the 1972 Olympics in Munich and evoked loyalty and admiration from followers.

In a recent poll by Track undefined Field News magazine, the sport's leading publication, readers overwhelmingly voted him America's most popular track and field athlete. His nickname, Pre, became as familiar to track followers as such other sports handles as Wilt, O.J. and Dr. J.

Fans seemed to identify with Prefontaine's boyish image of a Huck Finn in spikes. And Prefontaine, who finally grew a moustache “to give me another look,” enjoyed communicating with crowds, often taking two or three victory laps after a race while waving or shaking his fists to acknowledge cheers.

The “Pre mania,” as one observer called it, created jealous critics who felt that “pre” really stood for precocious.

Much of Prefontaine's energetic, blunt personality was a result of his background. He was born on Jan. 25, 1951, in a coastal fishing town that produced aggressive loggers, longshoremen and fishermen.

“You don't have many ways to jump,” he once said of his boyhood. “You can be an athlete. Athletes are very, very big in Coos Bay. You can study and try to be an intellectual, but there aren't many of those. Or you can go drag the guy in your Chevy with a switchblade in your pocket.”

Prefontaine weighed only 90 pounds in the eighth grade, too light for football and too small for basketball. “It looked like I was headed for the streets,” he recalled. “Track was a last resort.”

Once Prefontaine began running, he never stopped. And the more he won, the more determined he became, particularly after he had reached the University of Oregon and rattled off successive National Collegiate outdoor titles in the three‐mile.

An example of his courage and determination was in the 1970 N.C.A.A. championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Six days before the meet, he gashed his foot on an exposed metal bolt near the swimming pool of his hotel, requiring six stitches. He soaked the foot every hour, applied an ointment that numbed it the day of the race, wrapped it tightly and then won.

“When I took the tape off after the race,” he recalled. “Two stitches came with it.”

While many American distance runners viewed training or pace‐setting as torture, Prefontaine seemed consumed by the challenges.

“He was the ideal type of guy a coach likes to have,” said Bill Dellinger, a former Olympian and the coach at Oregon. “He was a talented runner, very dedioated, very coachable.”

Prefontaine's only major competitive disappointment was his failure to win the gold medal in the 5,000 at the 1972 Olympics. He had run exceedingly well in races leading to Munich and was with the leaders throughout the final. But because of inexperience or a reluctance to gamble, he did not uncork the sustained kick he knew he needed—and had confidently predicted he would utilize—in the final mile. He lost the third‐place bronze medal in the last 10 yards.

Disillusionment followed. As an amateur runner out of college trying to maintain international credentials, he became increasingly critical of America's program for amateur athletes.

In recent months, after having turned down another professional offer and debated whether to try for the 1976 Olympics, he leveled his strongest shots at the system.

“People say I should be running for a gold medal for the old red, white and blue and all that bull, but it's not going to be that way,” he said, while preparing to open a pub in Eugene, in addition to his other job as a representative for a foreign shoe manufacturer. “I'm the one who has made all the sacrifices. Those are my American records, not the country's.”

Several times he declined to compete in national championships in his continuing dispute with the Amateur Athletic Union over summer travel restrictions and the inability of athletes to dictate their terms for competing.

In contrast to many of the sport's followers, who saw track and field as a maze of statistics, Prefontaine viewed running as an art form.

“I'm not afraid of losing,” he once said. “But if I do, I want it to be a good race. I'm an artist, a performer. I want people to appreciate the way I run.”

Tributes came yesterday not only from fans but also from other competitors.

“It is tragic when any young person dies and the potential for a full productive life is snuffed out,” Senator Mark Hatfield, Oregon Republican, said, “Steve Prefontaine was an Oregon tiger in the finest tradition. Fiercely competitive, confident and outgoing.”

Dick Buerkle of Rochester, a racing rival, heard the news at an airport in Seattle, on returning with a United States team from a two‐week tour in China.

“I could just cry,” said Buerkle, who had won three races on the tour. “It left me really numb.”

“When I heard it, I began shaking all over,” added Francie Larrieu, America's best women's distance runner.

Raymond Prefontaine, the runner's father, is a carpenter. His mother, Mrs. Elfree Prefontaine, a German war bride, is a seamstress. He also leaves a sister, Linda, 21.

Several Records Set by Prefontaine

Following are Steve Prefontaine's best track performances:

OUTDOORS

Event

Time

One‐Mile Run

3:54.6

1,500 Meters

3:38

2,000 Meters

5:01.4*

3,000 Meters

7:42.6*

Two‐Mile

8:18.4*

Three‐Mile

12:51.4*

5,000 Meters

13:22.2*

Six‐Mile

26:51.8*

10,000 Meters

27:43.6*

INDOORS

One‐Mile Run

3:58.6

3,000 Meters

7:50*

Two‐Mile

8:20.4*

American record.