Suntan L'Ocean wrote:
I ran in the early 1990s and, frankly, I had only known of Pre as the name of Tom Jordan's book that was advertised in the pages of T+F News or The Runner. None of my teammates knew who this Pre was. I was born the year he died so I didn't remember the real thing and, if recall correctly, Nike kicked the Prefontaine marketing machine into gear around 2000 so there is a gap in the legend.
Where was the Prefontaine mystique for those 25 years, or so?
I am a little older than you and started running in 1980. I have a vague recollection of being aware of Steve Prefontaine, but do not recall any mystique. In my formative running years, the big names were Rodgers, Salazar, Beardsley, Scott, Dixon (does anyone know if Pre ever beat this contemporary of his), Coe, Ovett, Coghlan, Maree. (Shorter is not on the list because he was past his prime, although his clothing line was big.) Billy Mills was more famous than Pre because of the Robby Benson movie.
I recall the Pre marketing machine ramped up around the same time as the two movies in 97-ish.