Toeing the Line with Shorter, Prefontaine and Lindgren at Hayward Field (This Time for Real!)

Assistant to the Laureate Larry Mangan surfed the Intertubes to bring us this great race from the past pitting our Course Marshall Greg Fredericks against the best in the last National AAU Championship in the 3-Mile in 1971 at hallowed Hayward Field. 

The race came one week after Greg came in second to Steve Prefontaine in the NCAA 3-Mile.  He was nursing a sore foot and leg which turned out to be a stress fracture!  Steve again wowed his hometown crowd by winning the race.  There were many other notables in the race.  Greg remembers second place finisher Steve Stageberg as a great runner for Georgetown who also came from Oregon.  Dave Merrick of Penn was also a good runner early, but never advanced to the big-time.  Frank Shorter came in third and Gerry Lindgren fourth.  Greg remembers Gerry as a "goofy guy" who the next year caused the sensation at Hayward Field with his Stop Pre t-shirt. "Goofy" is as kind a word for the amazing runner as I've ever heard.  Greg is always the gentleman!

Here's video of the whole race, with an interview with Prefontaine at the end.  Thanks Larry, without you I'd have nothing but Physics posts!  (One is coming soon).