Another honor for the late Steve Prefontaine. The University of Oregon distance runner, who grew up in Coos Bay and attended Marshfield High School, will be among those inducted into the newly established Collegiate Athlete Hall of Fame on June 6 at the Hult Center in Eugene. The inaugural class will be inducted just prior to this year’s NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships at the new Hayward Field. Prefontaine, who died in a traffic accident in 1975, at one time held every American track record between 2,000 and 10,000 meters. For the Pirates, he was a two-time state cross-county champion and three-time track & field champion. For the Ducks, Prefontaine won three NCAA cross-country titles and four titles in the three-mile/5,000 meters on the track. He also won a gold medal in the 1971 Pan-Am Games at 5,000 meters, and finished fourth in the 5K at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany in 1972. Twenty-nine others will also be inducted including one of Pre’s rivals on the track, Gerry Lindgren, WSU. Legendary miler Jim Ryan, Kansas, is also included in the group along with sprinter Jesse Owens, Ohio State, who spoiled Hitler’s 1932 Olympics in Berlin.
