Pre's run toward glory

Every once in a while, I like to revisit some of the more dramatic moments in the state's sports history, especially now that they're so available on the internet. Here's the 5,000 meters from the 1972 Munich Olympic Summer Games, where Steve Prefontaine - 21 and still in school at the University of Oregon - finished fourth. A column written two decades later quoted the runner who finished third and got the bronze, Ian Stewart of England, quoted him as saying he wished he hadn't finished ahead of Pre because he hadn't been part of the lead pack in the closing lap, making Prefontaine much more worthy of the medal that he was. Especially after Prefontaine died three years later and didn't get a chance for another Olympic run.
Here's the 5,000 final. A great race.

Chuck Kearney on Rick Sanders

Rick Sanders and Steve Prefontaine. Kind of a similar duo of guys, each at the 1972 Olympics. Sanders won a silver, Pre won a bronze ... almost. Dude from England dove across the line to capture the bronze as Pre was dead after trying to actually win.
The video of "Grizzly" Rick Sanders is just a short clip, but you get a sense of his look and his flexibility, which Chuck Kearney comments on. The online stories about Sanders and his weight loss/then gain abilities are fabulous. What a guy.
Kearney, an Oregon great and coach of the UO program until it got thrown on its back so the school could add baseball and women's stunting, got some personal coaching from Sanders as a youngster.
Sanders and Prefontaine.
They both went out early. In auto accidents.