When did Steve Prefontaine ACTUALLY say "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift"?

I like your style, man. I followed your lead and discovered that no video exists of Abraham Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address.

I dug deeper, turns out there is no video of Moses saying "let my people go!"

We can add Pre's quote to this long list of quotes that do not exist on YouTube, and thus, never actually happened.

Go work, Gumshoe.

- The Chief

I believe he said it while presenting his Christmas list to Santa.

He did it on an easy long run, Sunday, May 9th, 1971. Everyone on that group run was hushed by the brilliance of it.

The actual quote is:

TGALTYBITSTG

He was big on abbreviation.

And it was in ALL CAPS. Pre also said to do anything in less than all caps is to decapitalize everything.

Cant find the article now (still searching) but apparently Steve prefontaine developed this \'phrase\' after joining Nike. When he use to visit schools to give motivational talks he use to end by saying people had to work hard for their dreams, something something \"and remember, to give anything less...."

He use to end on this phrase a lot apparently so it wasn\'t such a spontaneous thing as the \'Disney history\' of the world of today would have you believe.

Still would like to know why we cannonize a dope smoking drunk who had little since and was very selfish.

Is sacrifice really the best word here? Doesn't that mean you get something good if you give up your gift. Makes more sense to me to just say "tgaltyb is to waste the gift." Of course maybe he was thinking about all the great things you can do with your life if you give up your talent for a relatively useless skill like running, but I doubt that.

Va runner wrote:

I like your style, man. I followed your lead and discovered that no video exists of Abraham Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address.

I dug deeper, turns out there is no video of Moses saying "let my people go!"

We can add Pre's quote to this long list of quotes that do not exist on YouTube, and thus, never actually happened.

Go work, Gumshoe.

- The Chief

So with this sarcasm you have implied am I to assume that Moses never parted the Red Sea?

never Nike marketing team.

That idiot drove smack dab into a big freekin' rock.

He never said anything of philosophical significance.

Looking for an answer wrote:

We all know this is Steve Prefontaine's most quoted line. So, out of curiosity, I started digging around to see if there was a video of him saying it. There doesn't seem to be anything out there. I read somewhere that he used to close speeches at youth camps with it, but there's no evidence of that readily available. I've never seen him quoted in an old newspaper article or anything, either.

This made me wonder - did anyone ever personally hear him say this? Am I missing some key piece of evidence? And how accurate is this continuously reused quote?

That is an excellent question. Who knows if he ever really said it -- it doesn't really seem like the type of sentence that would come out of the mouth of a young runner who was more into running than pontificating about it.

Maybe just something made up by Nike?

Some folks here at Letsrun will of course attack you for challenging the official narrative. You know, the house slaves.

Va runner wrote:

I like your style, man. I followed your lead and discovered that no video exists of Abraham Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address.

I dug deeper, turns out there is no video of Moses saying "let my people go!"

We can add Pre's quote to this long list of quotes that do not exist on YouTube, and thus, never actually happened.

Go work, Gumshoe.

- The Chief

You really believe the Moses stories?

That's awesome. Hope Santa is good to you this year.

I spoke to someone who raced Pre in the day (4th in the Olympic marathon) and he was upset by the tools who made comments just like this. I agree with him. You are just a tool.

critic 100 wrote:

Still would like to know why we cannonize a dope smoking drunk who had little since and was very selfish.

Why is this thread linked to the front page? Nobody bumped it, ya dumb F**KS!!!!

"Follow the money" was never quoted by either Woodward or Bernstein. It was made up for the movie ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN. Doesn't appear in the book either.

This quote occurred after the liquor store visit while driving to the gas station.

all caps wrote:

Pre also said to do anything in less than all caps is to decapitalize everything.

Wrong, wrong, wrong! He said, and I quote, "TDAILTACITDE." It's guys like you making things up and spreading rumors that cause all this confusion. Stop it!

To drink and drive is to sacrifice the gift.

Va runner wrote:

I like your style, man. I followed your lead and discovered that no video exists of Abraham Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address.

I dug deeper, turns out there is no video of Moses saying "let my people go!"

We can add Pre's quote to this long list of quotes that do not exist on YouTube, and thus, never actually happened.

Go work, Gumshoe.

- The Chief

So the fact there were no videos around during Lincoln's life while they were certainly available during Pre's life doesn't slow your roll?

You have that all too frequent combination of arrogance and ignorance.

critic 100 wrote:

Still would like to know why we cannonize a dope smoking drunk who had little since and was very selfish.

Maybe for the same reason Baseball canonizes Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford.

We have to make bigger stars of our current runners BUT they have to do something to deserve it.

Pre ran from the front and raced a lot.

Now, they follow, run slow and rarely race.

They have to get their names and personalities out there.