Our son ran in the “Nike Nationals Cross Country Meet” as a senior in high school and we were so impressed with Nike “rolling out the red carpet” for the high school athletes and giving us a tour of their corporate headquarters and also allowing us to meet a few of their top professional distance athletes including Olympic athlete Matt Tegenkamp. Erik kept in touch with Matt for a few years and he seemed to be a very nice and humble man. The University of Portland where Erik ran who was also sponsored by Nike and while we were there at the Nike Headquarters we snapped the photo of the “Legend”, Steve Prefontaine. Unfortunately, Steve died tragically in a car crash just as he was entering his prime. Even way down here in Texas the name Prefontaine still carries an aura about it.
The Legend
