Old Timers, How popular was Pre?

They were gods. The 70's were great for running. Everyone knew the names of the winners of the great races and could even pronounce them. There were epic battles that are still talked about today. Distances from the MILE to the marathon were king. There were some great women names as well. It wouldn't be uncommon for some small marathons to have a dozen men under 2:30

The legend always grows after death.

I am a 50 year old miler/3miler who saw Pre, Shorter, et all, in their primes as a high school kid and college runner myself. They were larger than life, esp. Pre with all of his charisma.

You know how there is always 'that guy' for whatever reason women want and men want to be like? The guy everyone wants to talk to, be their friend, etc at school, at work, or 'where ever'? It's an intangible 'it' factor and Pre had it.

Sorry if that spoils it for anybody, but, it's just the way it was.

As a kid growing up in the 70s, we had more access to see the runners. You would find them on the cover of Sports Illustrated -- (when is the last time an American distance runner was on the cover of SI?); you could see them at the indoor meets circuit (Sunkist, Times, Jack in the Box, Millrose, etc...); and then could catch them at the road races.

These guys were heroes, and most of us high schoolers knew them and followed their efforts. Runner's World put out these little booklets that were quick reads on the lives of several of these guys (Shorter, Clarke, How H.S. Runners Trained, etc.).

legendary, but due heavily to the scarcity of info.

fast forward pre to today, and since the advent of our instant info. world, you not only would have heard about his workouts at hayward field by the evening postings, but you would have known the brand of beer he drank in the bar post workout.

good or bad, camelot exists no more.

I was at Sunkist in '75 and still have a picture of Pre racing on those orange and yellow boards. He was a headliner there for sure. We had opportunities back then for high school kids to run at meets like that with all the superstars racing too(different races though). We may have the internet today, but on the whole, I think the stars are too distant for the kids to reach for today, not enough opportunities for kids to experience high level racing up close, or even on TV! the kids are hungry for new heroes...

For me and my runner dweeb friends, Pre was cool but not THE coolest. There was another plane upon which dwelled the Walkers, The Dixons, The Virens, The Bayis, The Ronos, The Shorters, etc.. Pre was on his way there, but never quite made it. With the right marketing, and possibly an early death, any of the above would now be seen in at least as heroic of a light.

Pre was the first good runner I ever saw run live (in 1971). One thing that kind of detracted from Pre's image for me was the sense that he loved competition, but not necessarily running. If he could have been a football player instead, I don't think that he would never have run a single race.

ahh memories! My HS boyfriend was obsessed with Walker. He even wore all black to all comers meets in honor of his hero.

no one cares about who was popular with the running nerds, the question was about how popular they were with the general population, something we don't have todayand to say that pre didn't love running is a crock, the one quote he says is about why he does running and why he loves itbesides, i don't know if any of the great ones really loved running per se, they loved competing... i think of bannister... he loved to compete, it wasn't just about logging milesif you want someone who loves running you could probably be an ultra dude like yiannis kourous

XCTC wrote:

For me and my runner dweeb friends, Pre was cool but not THE coolest. There was another plane upon which dwelled the Walkers, The Dixons, The Virens, The Bayis, The Ronos, The Shorters, etc.. Pre was on his way there, but never quite made it. With the right marketing, and possibly an early death, any of the above would now be seen in at least as heroic of a light.

Pre was the first good runner I ever saw run live (in 1971). One thing that kind of detracted from Pre's image for me was the sense that he loved competition, but not necessarily running. If he could have been a football player instead, I don't think that he would never have run a single race.

I was a 10th grader when he died. We all thought he was cool, very cool. But, so were Walker and Dixon- big partiers. It's funny how times change. Those guys were known as partiers. In fact runners, in general, were known as hard trainers and harder partiers.

It was the times. But, back to Pre. It was his training and racing that made him so popular with my group. He trained hard (what was an easy day?) and raced like every racec was his last.

[quote]anEconomist wrote:

no one cares about who was popular with the running nerds, the question was about how popular they were with the general population, something we don't have today

[quote]]

I was a kid in the 70's and not a runner and I still knew about Shorter, Rodgers, even Salazar in the late 70's/early 80's.

They were in Sports Illustrated. They were on TV. They benefited from decent, but not great, public exposure.

Nowadays, if my 13-year old could name an elite runner besides Geb, I'd faint. BTW, the only reason he could name Geb is because I was joking with him and gave him that as a nickname that has stuck inside our family (my son is a huge offensive tackle)

Anyway, that media exposure has been taken away from distance running, cut up in little pieces, and passed on to poker, fishing, etc. I think the main reason is that we don't have anyone winning anymore. All of the aforementioned guys won something or were threats to win every time the toed the line. I think it's going to take some USA version of Mottram, maybe even better. Said person will also need to be a USA native to get the masses at all interested.

i was a little-kid sports nut in the early 70s...football, basketball, baseball, hockey and also TRACK. i loved OJ (who knew he was a sociopath?)wilt chamberlain, roberto clemente and PRE equally. i still remember dave wottle sending chills up my spine in the munich 800.

at that time track was much more mainstream, so people who were really into stick-and-ball sports also knew who the track stars were. that's one reason they became "legends." there was a lot of international track on ABC back then.

As Eleventy said, track was on TV regularly. I'd guess that ABC used to broadcast between a dozen and twenty meets a year, running highlights from any significant event, and when they featured distance races, they were often broadcast either in full or significant parts. I think miles were usually shown gun to tape, but often the 5000's and 10,000's were edited.

Ryun, Shorter, Liquori, Bayi, Walker, Wottle, Keino, and of course, Pre would all be there. It was a different time and place, and running had respect and appreciation.

That's pretty much my recollection as well. Right after I got started in the sport, CBS started showing a weekly track meet throughout the spring and summer every Sunday. I think it only lasted for two or three years, but it was right there at the same timeslot as the NFL's. Articles about distance runners turned up in Sports Illustrated now and again. I don't want to give the impression that athletics was a major sport. It was far from that, but was much more popular than now. Maybe it was at the level of bowling or tennis.

As to Pre's poularity, as others have noted, distance runners in general were better known than now and there were always some who had a good number of admirers. Prefontaine was working his way into that group, but I think more US runners at the time were inspired by Shorter, Ryun and Lindgren than by Prefontaine. Remember that those first three guys had all won both major national and international races and Prefontaine had won only major domestic races. A lot of his following was in Oregon where he probably was more popular than any other US runner. But that's just an estimate as I was never in Oregon in those years.

If you go back ten years hardly no high school runners knew of Pre. After the movies and Nike's marketing that has changed.

jampian wrote:

If you go back ten years hardly no high school runners knew of Pre. After the movies and Nike's marketing that has changed.

i graduated HS in 91. I had no clue who Pre was. My coach even had a poster of him, and I asked who he was. It said go pre in green, I thought he was from Portugal. He said he was a great runner back in the day, I never thought about it again(until the fire on the track came out). I had pic of the british milers from 84 olympic 1500 (coe, ovett, cram) in my locker.

anEconomist wrote:

no one cares about who was popular with the running nerds, the question was about how popular they were with the general population, something we don't have today

and to say that pre didn't love running is a crock, the one quote he says is about why he does running and why he loves it

besides, i don't know if any of the great ones really loved running per se, they loved competing... i think of bannister... he loved to compete, it wasn't just about logging miles

if you want someone who loves running you could probably be an ultra dude like yiannis kourous

Since this board is mostly frequented by runing nerds, I thought that many could relate.

I would be interested in any quotes that indicate that Pre actually enjoyed running for it's own sake.

It is probably fair to say that a lot, possibly a majority, of top runners didn't (and even today don't) especially really enjoy running. For them it's a means to an end, it's just hard work, and they retire as soon as the extrinsic rewards diminish sufficiently. My sense is that Pre was among these.

My speculation (often confirmed by extended careers as masters runners) is that the following would still run even if they weren't exceptionally gifted: Zatopek, Hill, Dixon, Foster, Shorter, Rodgers (for sure), Scott, Joanie, Gebresellasie, and absolutely (based on his thread on this board), Rono.These guys are "True Runners" in my book, not just great competitors ("Not that there is anything wrong with that!" -sic)

Anyway, that media exposure has been taken away from distance running, cut up in little pieces, and passed on to poker, fishing, etc. I think the main reason is that we don't have anyone winning anymore. All of the aforementioned guys won something or were threats to win every time the toed the line. I think it's going to take some USA version of Mottram, maybe even better. Said person will also need to be a USA native to get the masses at all interested.

You're right. It will take someone who sets the AR @ 1500, 5k, or 10k, identifies with the American public (white, native, not so nerdy and religious), good looking, and has a certain level of charisma.

Today's best Americans just aren't exciting enough to reach hero status. They are either too slow, too nerdy, too ugly, or too foreign.

a friend of mine met pre when pre was running nationals in miami in 1969. he followed pre's career closely but only talked to him a couple of times.

my friend says pre hated being called "pre", he wanted to be called steve. all the hot shot stuff that people either praise or criticize prefopntaine about is embellished. my friend doesn't believe nike has promoted the legend (their is a point of view that is never accepted) and is amazed that prefontaine's life is still examined with the scrutiny that exits. he feels everyone has a wrong opinion of who steve prefontaine is.

just food for thought.