AUTOMATE WEB PHOTO GALLERY

Steve Prefontaine, 254, June 25, 1971 AAU Championships, Hayward Field, Eugene OR, 3 mile race, Pre's winning time was 12:58.6. In photo: Pre and Steve Stageberg. "How They Train Cover" cover.

The quotes and info below are from an article by sports editor Jerry Uhrhammer in the June 26, 1971 issue of the Eugene Register-Guard.

8100 fans watched Pre run the second-fastest US 3-mile time ever. The record was held by Gerry Lindgren who ran 12:53.0 in 1966. Lindgren placed fourth in this race. Pre and Lindgren were the only two US men to break 13 minutes as of this race.

Steve Stageberg of Georgetown TC, originally from South Eugene HS, Oregon, was only .5 second from becoming the third to break 13 minutes in his personal record run. His 13:00.4 time beat his prior personal best in 1970 of 13:15.8 by 15.4 seconds. "And this was precisely the race I wanted -- a hard gut race from the beginning. None of that puss-footing around with a slow pace and everybody sprinting at the end." Even miler Marty Liquori predicted the race would be "The best three-mile there's ever been in America . . . a very competitive three or four-way race down to the last lap."

Top finish order:

1, Steve Prefontaine (OR) 12;58.6 - New field & OR record; meet record
2. Steve Stageberg (Georgetown TC) 13:00.4
3. Frank Shorter (FL TC) 13:02.4
4. Gerry Lindgren (unattached) 13:04.3
5. Martio Perez (Mexico) 13:04.3
6. Terry Harrison (SC Striders) 13:07.0

Pre set a new meet record last set by Bob Schul of the Ohio AAU with a 13:10.4 in 1965. Pre set new Hayward Field and U. Oregon records in the three-mile, beating his own prior record time of 13:01.6 on April 3, 1971 at a dual OR-Stanford meet.

As another indicator of the quality of competitors at this meet, Ivory Crockett of the Philadelphia Pioneer AC, the defending champion with 9.3 seconds in the 1970 AAU 100 yard dash, placed fifth in this meet's 100 event with a time of 9.1!

Pre grimaced in disappointment at not beating Lindgren's record time. "I know, but I'm a little closer . . . maybe by the end of the summer." Pre's previous best time in the three mile was 13:01.6.

While Lindgren's 1966 effort was a solo jaunt much of the way. This race was anything but. It was highly competitive the whole distance. Stageberg and Frank Shorter both ran personal best races. Pre, Shorter, Stageberg and Lindgren were in the leading group all the way, Lindgren leading for a time early in the race. Pre and Shorter traded leads much of the rest of the way.

The first mile clocked at 4:17, the second at 4:25. With two laps to go, Pre was in front with Shorter off his shoulder. On the 11th of the 12 laps Pre picked up the pace and opened a slight gap. Stageberg took advantage, moving past Shorter into second. The two Oregonians from Coos Bay and Eugene were side-by-side at the gun lap start.

"With a lap to go, I knew the crowd wanted it, too. . . . I couldn't let them down," said Pre.

Stageberg heard the crowd too: "All the way down the backstretch all I could hear was the din . . . it came in waves. It was deafening . . . an extremely surrealistic feeling."

Going around the turn, Pre looked over and saw Stageberg out of the corner of his eye. Stageberg saw him look. "My first thought was that maybe he's worried."

Both were running strong, but Pre opened up a slight lead on the final turn, then increased as Stageberg began tiring. Pre built the lead to 25 yards at the tape, completing his final lap in 58.8 and the final half mile in 2:02.5.

The elated Pre jogged around the track on victory laps, waving to the crowd. "Did I look tough?" he asked with a grin as he came to the interview area. "I think I had a lot left. I don't know why I let up coming off the last turn." He had seen Stageberg fading. "I should have kept driving to the finish line but I didn't know I was under 13 minutes."

Pre called the track "beautiful" and said the same of the spectators. "Those people are fantastic. They're my people, man. How can you lose with 12,000 people behind you?" (They probably sounded like 12,000).

"I redeemed myself for last year's race, that's for sure," said Pre, referring to his fifth place AAU finish when he ran on an injured foot. When asked what was going through his mind, Pre thought for a moment, then grinned and said: "Who's next?"

Pre and Stageberg's times qualified them for the 1971 Pan-American Games in Cali, Colombia. Pre competed in this meet.

Pre's run times in the National championship 3-mile event:

1969, 29 June: 4th, 13:43.0 (just graduated high school)
1970, 27 June: 5th,13:26.0
1971, 25 June: 1st, 12:58.6 Field and UOregon Record; meet record
1973, 16 June: 1st, 12:53.4. Meet Record (just graduated from the University of Oregon) This was the last year the 3 mile event would be held at the Nationals; thereafter only the 5000m

SAN FRANCISCO FILMS in the FESTIVAL -WORLD'S GREATEST DAD -USA, 2009, 100 minutes

SHOWTIMES
Fri, April 25 / 9:00 / Kabuki / WORL25K
Sat, April 26 / 7:45 / Kabuki / WORL26K



San Francisco icon ROBIN WILLIAMS stars in the outrageous comedy which will be shown twice at the SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.

SFIFF52 WORLD'S GREATEST DAD-
DIRECTOR: Bobcat Goldthwaite
Producers: Tim Perell, Howard Gertler, Sean McKittrick, Richard Kelly
Screenplay: Bobcat Goldthwait
CAMERA: Horacio Marquinez
EDITOR: Jason Stewart

CAST: Robin Williams, Daryl Sabara, Alexie Gilmore, Tom Kenny, Geoffrey Pierson, Henry Simmons, Toby Huss

San Francisco icon ROBIN WILLIAMS stars in the outrageous comedy which will be shown twice at the SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.

San Francisco native ROBIN WILLIAMS turns his film & comeby career completely around with a tour de force incredible acting job as LANCE the pushover dad in WORLD'S GREATEST DAD.

ROBIN WILLIAMS is the marshmallow dad with a heart of gold who can't disipline nor say no to his hot-headed, red-headed, 'night of the living dead' horror of a son. The over-the-top un-pc son is the complete opposite kind-hearted, milque-toast dad.

The film takes a turn when an event causes DAD to take matters in his own hand which makes the son a worshipped hero and DAD the tag-a-long sympathetic father.

Filmed in San Francisco and the Bay Area with several SAN FRANCISCO scenes in Japantown, BOOKS INC at OPERA PLAZA, and Sea Clift.

Amazingly, ROBIN WILLIAMS does a tour de force portrayal as the milque-toast father which will be the highlight of his career. The buzz is on for an Oscar-nominated (winning ?) performance. ROBIN WILLIAMS' understated & excellent nuances of his tormented charater will have the critics flabergasted as it did to ADDA.

Yes, ADDA is recommending WORLD'S GREATEST DAD with 4 1/2 STARS. See the start of 2009's first OSCAR buzz.

BEST LINES: (so many lines, so little time to write em all down)

"I want to write something that will make a shitload of cash."

"Diving is NOT a sports, it's falling."
=============================



“In World’s Greatest Dad, a wickedly funny dark comedy, Lance (Robin Williams) is a high school poetry teacher who dreams of becoming a rich and famous writer. A single father, he tries desperately to connect with his teenage son, Kyle (Daryl Sabara), an insolent, hormone-raging smartass who defies his dad at every turn. Lance exercises his own hormones with Claire (Alexie Gilmore), a painfully adorable art teacher who may have her eyes on a bigger prize. After a freak accident, Lance suddenly faces both the worst tragedy of his life and the greatest opportunity. Lance treads a path that could land him everything he’s ever dreamed of, as long as he can live with the knowledge of how he got there. Alexie Gilmore is cheeky and Daryl Sabara is droll incarnate but it’s the outstanding performance by Robin Williams that propels World’s Greatest Dad. Writer/director and longtime comedian Bobcat Goldthwait comes up with another lusciously perverse and refreshingly original comedy that tackles love, loss and our curious quest for infamy,” Sundance Film Festival.

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