Written H
in Stone
TRACK FANS MAKE PILGRIMAGE TO PRE’S ROCK
BY DANTE ZUÑIGA-WEST
ow do you quantify a legend? How Sasquatch is
Bigfoot? How Loch Ness is Nessie? In the realm of
legend, it’s nearly impossible to gauge magnitude —
how golden is Eldorado and how deep is Atlantis?
In the sports world, where myth and legend remain
forever tangled by statistics and star-power, legend
status is hard-earned, and just as unquantifiable. Is
there a measuring stick big enough to do justice to
those giants of athleticism, like Jordan or Seles, who
heroically rise above all things mundane and capture our admiration?
Such figures seem to transcend our speculations and enter another
domain — a pantheon.
“Touch the rock, Wyatt, go ahead and touch it,” the mother of
aspiring track runner Wyatt “Wheels” Newell says. Camera in hand,
she is standing in the middle of the road, near the corner of Birch Lane
and Skyline Boulevard, at “Pre’s Rock” — the place where the life of
Eugene’s greatest legend, track star Steve Prefontaine, came to an end.
This rock is the shrine at which his name has been immortalized,
literally set in stone.
PHOTO BY TRASK BEDORTHA
12 JUNE 21, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM