OT Statue of Steve Prefontaine unveiled

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I was a 1st place champion miler my first year in high school.(67)...ran a 4:36 mile...best time I ever had....Prefontaine was amazing. I always thought he brought the same thing to the sport that Agassi brought to tennis...a bit of rock and roll. Gone too soon. He's always been loved here in Lane County ...track town USA!!!! Good to see him get some more recognition. I drove by the 5th street market Saturday and wondered what was going on there.
 
That Marketplace was built while i lived there, and is a nice addition to Eugene. Hopefully it has filled in with businesses by now. When i left, there was the Hotel, lofts, Niketown, and the ice cream parlor.
 
julius said:
It's funny to think that a guy who ran had such an impact on people in Oregon.
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Eugene was where "jogging" pretty much got its start. And in the '60's and '70's track and field was king in this state. A lot of us who participated in high school track were (literally) buying our shoes directly from Phil Knight (or his friends) out of the trunk of his old blue POS Chevy. Or running down to the west end of the Burnside Bridge once he went "brick and mortar". Prefontaine was Nike's first big signing. Putting Pre in Nike shoes was like putting rocket fuel in your gas tank. He had a huge hand in making Nike the brand it is today. And Pre had amazing charisma, if for no other reason than he looked like a beer keg on bionic legs. I got to see him run several times at the old Portland Indoor Track Meet and he kicked all comer's asses. He literally put Oregon on the map when the Blazers were still in their infancy (and the rest of the country still thought of us as a wilderness). He made us regionally proud and gave our state something to root for on an international stage. If anything, that statue is fifty years overdue......and makes one ask why it took so freaking long, and Phil Knight should have paid for it. But then, I have also heard rumors over these past fifty years that Knight was the person Pre was racing when he had his accident.......we'll likely never know. But if anyone in this state deserves a statue, it is Steve Prefontaine. For me, seeing Prefontaine run in person was genuine "bucket list" stuff.
 
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