Tom Jordan’s labor of love will end with this year’s Prefontaine Classic
Tom Jordan is in his final go-round as meet director of the Prefontaine Classic after 37 years on the job (Courtesy RunnerSpace.com)
An era with the Prefontaine Classic is ending. And no, I’m not talking about a demise of the greatest single-day event this side of Civil War football on the state’s sports calendar.
The 46th running of the best track and field meet in the United States is set for August 20-21 at revamped Hayward Field, and — with fingers crossed due to COVID-19 implications — it promises to provide 2 1/2 hours of sensational entertainment as always.
But this will be the swan song of Tom Jordan, who serves for the 37th year as meet director.
Jordan, 72, is stepping aside because, frankly, the job calls for the energy of a younger person.
“My days of waking up at 3:30 a.m. with my mind racing because of all the different issues going on are soon to be done,” Jordan tells me. “This is the last time that will happen.”
Since 1984, Jordan has been the cog that has kept humming the invitational named after the late, great Steve Prefontaine. There are too many duties aligned to his job to mention, but the most important is ensuring that the best field of competitors possible is on hand to provide the competition that makes the Pre Classic the envy of all other meets in America.
From left, Justin Gatlin, Andre de Grasse and Su Bingtian cross the finish line in the men’s 100 in 2017. De Grasse earned the bronze medal in the Olympic Games at Tokyo this week; Bingtian finished sixth in the finals. (Courtesy RunnerSpace.com)
Last year’s meet was the first ever to be cancelled, sidelined by the pandemic that put a stranglehold on the world. This year’s meet will be staged, and the timing couldn’t be better. It will be held less than two weeks after the final day of track and field competition at the Tokyo Olympic Games. It will be the first international meet following Tokyo, and athletes will be rested, in shape and eager to perform again — especially at the sensationally reconstructed venue of the 2022 World Championships.
There will be 21 events this year, including five women’s middle and long-distance races Friday night the 20th). Jordan is hoping for a full house — capacity is 12,695 — on Saturday the 21st for a schedule that will run from 1-3:30 p.m., with live television coverage on NBC.
But there is no telling how many of the competitors will be unable to participate, potential victims of either COVID or red tape. There is a travel ban getting into the U.S. People cannot visit the country from Europe without procuring a “national interest exception letter,” in this case issued by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. It must be shown at the departing airport along with passport, visa and other necessary documents. Athletes are also required to have a negative COVID test within three days of departure.
Chanelle Price sets the pace in the women’s 1,500 in 2017 (Courtesy RunnerSpace.com)
“It has made things incredibly more difficult,” Jordan says. “It’s a completely new layer of bureaucracy that has taken at least a full week of my time, where normally I would be preparing for the meet. Every athlete who comes from or travels through Europe must have it.
‘We have a great field of athletes lined up. Hopefully, everything works out, but it has been a nightmare. It has become more complex, more difficult. Yeah, I’m ready to go. No regrets.”
This is not to imply that Jordan hasn’t enjoyed his work over the past 37 years. It has been a labor of love for the self-avowed “track nut” from his days competing as a middle-distance runner at Illinois and Stanford. He worked eight years with Track & Field News magazine — the first four as a staff writer, the last four on the business side — before moving to Eugene in 1982. Two years later, he took over operations of the Pre Classic.
For 20 years, Jordan and a business partner staged major meets and conducted tours to world Masters events. (From 1986-92, he served as meet director for the now-defunct Oregon Indoor at Portland’s Memorial Coliseum). When the Pre Classic joined the prestigious Diamond League in 2010— it is currently the only U.S. invitational on the dozen-event calendar — Jordan’s work load doubled.
“The past 11 years,” he says, “I’ve only done the Pre.”
During his first year as meet director in 1984, Jordan helped put together a deal that made Nike the Pre Classic’s title sponsor. That agreement remains intact. Jordan believes it stands as the longest currently intact title sponsorship of a single sports event in the country.
Nike’s backing has been “indescribably important” to the invitational’s success, Jordan says.
“They have brought so much to the table,” he says. “We have gone from being one of the better meets in the U.S. to one of the best in the world. That is completely (due to) Nike. One of the things that sometimes is lost is how many athletes have been able to pursue their dreams because of the support Nike has given them.”
Justin Gatlin (third from right) hits the tape first in the men’s 100 in 2017 (Courtesy RunnerSpace.com)
Because of Nike, Jordan has been able to load his entry lists with competitors from around the globe. He estimates “well over 150” countries have been represented through the years.
“It’s not just an American meet,” Jordan says. “It is truly international.”
The signature race of the Pre Classic is the “Bowerman Mile,” traditionally the meet’s final event. Through the years, a four-minute mile has been run 436 times by 198 runners.
“I’m pretty sure we have more sub-four-minute miles than any meet in the world,” Jordan says.
Across 46 years, the Pre Classic has had a couple of world-record performances and a handful of American records set. Not that attempts haven’t been made for more.
“I’m not a big fan of records,” Jordan says. “You set something up, and 90 percent of the time it’s a failure. Records are tough. They just aren’t something you can say, ‘We’re going for it,’ and then get it done. More often than not, it doesn’t happen.
“I prefer head-to-head competition, like this year in the men’s 1,500. We’re going to have Matt Centrowitz, Timothy Cheruiyot and all the best runners. It doesn’t matter that they’re not going to set a world record. It will be a ‘mano a mano’ race. We’ll find out from Tokyo who is on top, and then everybody will be gunning for whoever that is.”
That’s not to say Jordan won’t be setting up any world-record attempts. He’ll be doing just that in the women’s 2-mile and 5,000 with the help of new “Wavelight” technology, which provides pacing lights around the track during the race. That way, a record attempt doesn’t have to depend on a “rabbit.”
“The runners are ahead or behind the lights in terms of being on world-record pace,” Jordan says.
As a self-avowed “middle-distance honk at heart,” Jordan’s favorite Pre Classic memories reflect multi-lap exploits. One is the women’s 1,500 in 2000, featuring Gabriela Szabo of Romania and American Suzy Favor Hamilton. Szabo would win the gold medal at 5,000 in the Olympic Games later that summer.
“Suzy had taken a lead of about 20 meters (over Szabo) on the back stretch of the final lap,” Jordan recalls. “(PA announcer) Scott Davis says, ‘Hamilton leads, and Szabo has not lost a race in two years!’ The crowd roared, Szabo reacted to the crowd’s reaction and started this amazing kick. Suzy threw herself across the finish line but Szabo got the win (4:00.73 to 4:00.79). That was my favorite women’s race through the years.”
The next year, Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj, the world mile record-holder, was going for the first sub-3:50 mile in Pre Classic history. Among those in the field was high school senior Alan Webb, who was shooting for Jim Ryun’s long-standing national prep record of 3:55.3.
“Hicham has a sizable lead in the backstretch, but Alan starts a kick on the final turn,” Jordan says. “He is behind four or five other world-class milers, and as he starts to pass them, the crowd goes nuts. It’s the loudest I’d heard Hayward Field since they moved the east grandstands back in ’87. It was so loud you couldn’t think.”
El Guerrouj won in 3:49.92, the fastest mile ever run on American soil to that point. Webb finished fourth in 3:53.43, taking nearly two seconds off Ryun’s prep mark.
“Those kind of memories don’t leave you very soon,” Jordan says of the two races, which are both available for viewing today on YouTube.
Jordan is appreciated by those who have worked under him to build the Pre Classic into the collossus that it is.
“The caliber of athletes Tom gets here every year is tremendous, but behind the scenes, he has built a team I’m proud to be part of,” says Jeff Oliver, who began working with Jordan as a U of O undergrad 19 years ago and now serves as his press chief. “There are so many moving parts to (staging) this kind of meet, one man can’t do it all. Tom has a team that he trusts, and most of us have been here for years to help get things done.
“Tom biggest job is to have relationships with the athletes and their agents. Once he has (their entries) confirmed, he hands off the duties. But his knowledge of Steve Prefontaine, his relationship with Nike and his overall understanding of the sport of track and field are unparalleled.”
Oliver describes Jordan’s demeanor as “very down to earth.”
“It’s not about him or any of us,” Oliver says. “He puts the sport first. At the heart of it is the intent to honor Steve Prefontaine. Tom has done that by having the best track and field meet there is for so many years.”
Jordan says he has experienced the most joy from “watching happy fans.”
“I love having people leave the stadium feeling that they got their money’s worth,” he says. “The TV audience is important, too, but there’s nothing like being at Hayward Field, with people filing out with smiles on their faces as the announcer says, ‘Here’s what you’ve seen today,’ then going through some fantastic performances.”
Jordan says he will continue to live in Eugene but will have no role in staging the 2022 World Championships “out of choice.” He’ll work with Track & Fields News in conducting tours to major events such as the Olympic Games, World Championships and European Championships.
“It’s a comfort zone for me,” Jordan says. “It will enable me to travel and see the major meets and enjoy retirement.”
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