Never Stop Pre: The Enduring Inspiration of America’s Greatest Sports Legend…by Matt Love (new book out!)

Never Stop Pre: The Enduring Inspiration of America’s Greatest Sports Legend

By Matt Love

“Pre was more than a name—it was a condition.” Ken Kesey

On May 31, 1975, Coos Bay, Oregon native Steve Prefontaine died in an automobile accident. At the time of his death, he held 14 American records in distance running.

Pre was 24 years old and already a legend in Oregon and the world of track of field.

A half century after his tragic end, his remarkable story continues to inspire others on a near mythological level to compete in a multitude of ways, from Phil Knight to a country singer to an Iraqi War vet to an impoverished high school runner to a man battling addictions to an obsessed sculptor to a writer and teacher on the brink of suicide and so many more.

In Never Stop Pre: The Enduring Inspiration of America’s Greatest Sports Legend, Matt Love, prolific an award winning chronicler of modern Oregon history, races the reader through a decathlon of literary genres to investigate the ongoing phenomenon and spectacular influence of Steve Prefontaine.

“There has never been a cultural sensation quite like Steve Prefontaine, said Love. “Over the course of many decades, I kept running into people who were inspired by Pre to change their lives for the better. Pre has a way of doing that like no American athlete before or since. Never stop Pre. When he’s no longer relevant in Oregon, Oregon is dead.”

Never Stop Pre is a lively 125-page book that breaks new documentary ground on Pre’s remarkable story and introduces the reader to more than a dozen fascinating personal narratives that recount Pre’s magic upon people’s lives. It’s a book about a unique sports legend whose short, meteoric life transcended awesome sporting accomplishments.

Available as a print or e-book on Amazon or Nestuccaspitpress.com and sold in select retail outlets around the Pacific Northwest.