THE PRE CLASSIC’S recognition of its 50th edition wasn’t limited to the stellar collection of athletes assembled — or the pair of World Records broken and thrilling comps that resulted.
Throughout the meet, TrackTown USA spotlighted the Pre Classic’s history in a number of ways.
A select group of former headliners — Maria Mutola, Alan Webb, Bernard Lagat, Connie Price-Smith, Brittney Reese, Reese Hoffa and Gail Devers — were introduced as their Pre Classic achievements were presented on the stadium’s video boards before their signature events.
Additionally, the meet honored several with hometown ties such as Galen Rupp, Mac Wilkins, Claudette Groenendaal, Leann Warren, Mary Slaney, English Gardner, Ashton Eaton and Jesse Williams.
A special tribute was given to the past meet directors, including the two living members of that group — Pat Holleran, who conducted 1981–83, and Tom Jordan, who orchestrated 1984–2021.
Jordan’s connection to the meet is as intimate as anyone’s. He interviewed and wrote about the namesake himself, Steve Prefontaine, while he was at Track & Field News, and he authored the definitive story of his career — Pre! — in ’77.
Jordan’s tenure of directing 37 editions is easily the longest and doesn’t include preparations for a grand spectacle planned in ’20 in the reimagined Hayward Field as that meet was a casualty of COVID-19.
As with the meet itself, TrackTown made it even more memorable for Jordan as some 30 of his closest Pre Classic associates were gathered for a special alumni reunion that culminated with an introduction and walk down the Hayward Field homestretch.
“I was delighted to see a lot of the people that put on the Prefontaine Classic for so many years back again,” said Jordan. “My hat’s off to TrackTown. They did a great job conceptualizing a reunion and helping to fly people in. They made things feel very special.” (Continued below)
Asked about the most important changes in the meet’s status — Jordan once described the transition as “one of the better meets in the U.S. to one of the best in the world” — and he doesn’t hesitate with the three most transformational moments.
“First is Nike signing on as the title sponsor in 1984,” he says. That partnership remains intact, and Jordan believes it’s the longest currently intact title sponsorship of a single sports event in the country.
He points next to Steve Miller, who passed away on June 15. In 1991 Miller was Nike’s Global Director Of Track & Field and approached Jordan with a thought.
“He called me and said, ‘Tom, I’d like to bring Sergey Bubka to the Pre Classic’,” Jordan recalls. “At the time vault great Bubka was arguably the most popular male athlete in the sport along with Carl Lewis. That was kind of mind-blowing because we were coming off maybe the worst two years in the meet’s history.”
That moonshot dream eventually became reality.
“In 1993 he [Bubka] did come and had some real good attempts at a World Record,” Jordan recalls. “From then on, I think that put the stamp on the Pre Classic as a major meet in the world.”
The next big step for the Pre Classic was a result of that international attention. In ’10, the Diamond League was created and the Pre Classic’s stature had grown enough for the meet to be selected among the worldwide elite.
Somehow the Pre Classic shined even brighter. A ranking system of Diamond League meets had been devised with various categories, and the Pre Classic rated among the highest every year in every column, many times at No. 1. That’s still true this year. Those interested can check year-by-year here: Competition Performance Rankings (Continued below)
A Meet With Remarkable Lineage
THE PRE CLASSIC’S ROOTS can be traced to a fixture called the Hayward Field Restoration Meet, initiated in ’73 by legendary Duck coach Bill Bowerman for the purpose of raising funds to help improve Hayward Field.
It continued in 1974 and was to be named the Bowerman Classic in 1975 until the tragic news of Steve Prefontaine’s death from an auto accident on May 30, a Friday that was 8 days before the meet scheduled for June 07.
The funeral service for Pre was held in his hometown of Coos Bay on the following Monday, and on Tuesday during a brief ceremony at Hayward Field attended by about 4200 people, Bowerman announced that the upcoming meet’s name would be changed to be the “Steve Prefontaine Classic.”
Both of the Hayward Field Restoration Meets were impacted by crowd-pleasing clashes between Pre and stars of his era:
1973: Two forever mile PRs were set in a battle of recent NCAA champions as Bowling Green’s Dave Wottle — also the reigning Olympic 800 gold medalist — set a Hayward Field record in 3:53.3 to turn back the 3:54.4 of Oregon’s Pre. They both had won NCAA titles two weeks earlier (Wottle the mile, Pre the 3-mile). The meet’s high hurdles comp produced more than just a facility record. Olympic gold medalist Rod Milburn equaled his own 13.0 WR.
1974: Pre won his signature event, the 3-mile, in 12:51.4 as both he and runner-up Frank Shorter (12:52.0) bettered the former AR of 12:53.0 set by Gerry Lindgren in ’66. Shorter — the Munich marathon gold medalist — would win the 3M in the first Pre Classic a year later. The event distance was changed to 5000m in ’76.
The meet garnered front-of-the-book coverage in T&FN (I July ’74 edition) though it wasn’t the Pre-Shorter duel that got the headline or a cover photo. Those went to Rick Wohlhuter for a half-second reduction of his 880 WR to 1:44.1. Not yet the Olympic bronze medalist he would become in two years later, Wohlhuter was paced through halfway in 51.0 by an Oregon frosh quartermiler and won by a whopping 6.9 seconds.
Jordan got to watch this year’s meet unbridled by professional responsibilities for the first time.
“It was kind of surreal, actually,” he said. “For the first time ever I was able to sit with my family who came down from Portland and watch the meet with them. That was new for me.”
“It was absolutely the most loaded Prefontaine Classic in history,” he said. “And a lot of that credit goes to John Capriotti, who’s now one of the co-meet directors along with Jody Smith. He used to work at Nike and of course still has all of his contacts.”
Jordan remembers another important part in history, one which positively affects the Pre Classic to this day.
“One of the things that made my job so much easier and special was way back when Rudy Chapa was in the position of Nike’s Director Of Global Athletics,” Jordan explains, estimating that to be around ’95.
“Rudy is a lawyer, and he started putting a clause into every Nike contract signed by an athlete saying that, if requested, the athlete will compete in the Prefontaine Classic. I could always count on some of the biggest athletes in the sport being at the meet if they were healthy. That was a tremendous asset.”
Jordan says that the requirement became even more important later when Capriotti was in that same position at Nike and was also the Pre Classic’s Associate Meet Director. “He really put the muscle into Rudy’s contract clause,” Jordan explains. “So if someone says, ‘Oh, that doesn’t fit in with our schedule,’ then tough. He was the hammer.”
Jordan acknowledges that there were some down times — “I’ve sort of blotted those moments of stress out of my life, but there were times when it was nip and tuck” — and quickly adds, “I think it’s been really rewarding to see how the Pre Classic has grown and solidified and now expanded. And I don’t miss anything except associating with the people that help put it on.”
Near to Jordan’s heart in that group, all present at the 50th, are two of his longest associates — Gary and Jules Trigueiro, who’d been working the meet prior to his arrival in 1984. A multitalented couple, they were as right-hand as possible with eventual titles of Assistant Meet Director (Gary) and Director of Fun (Jules).
Two other long-timers were there — Dave Henry, who began helping in 1987 as a volunteer after finishing his collegiate eligibility as a steepler at Oregon to eventually be Operations Manager, and Jeff Oliver, who became Media Coordinator in 2001 and is now the Senior Manager of Partnerships and Media Operations for TrackTown USA.
Although Jordan is retired from the Pre Classic, track & field fans can still interact with him as the Eugene resident is a regular attendee at Hayward Field meets. In addition, he’ll continue his association with T&FN on our track tour offerings. ◻︎
