Bubka Is Coming! by Tom Jordan Editor’S Note: Tom Jordan Has Been the Prefontaine Meet Director for 35 Successful Years
Second in a series Bubka is Coming! by Tom Jordan Editor’s note: Tom Jordan has been the Prefontaine Meet Director for 35 successful years. OnTrack asked Tom to share his top five Prefontaine Classic memories during this, his last year as the Pre Classic Director. Tom agreed to our request, and we will publish his personal highlights in a series of five articles. This is the second article in the series. Note, these memories will not be competition highlights. A ranking by experts of Pre meet competition performances through 2014 may be found at PreClassic. Tom Jordan com, the official Prefontaine Classic website: Top 40 All-time. I remember the day when the Prefontaine Classic was saved like it was yesterday. (Okay, since it was nearly 30 years ago, maybe it was more like last week than yesterday.) The late 1980s had not been kind to the Pre Classic. Despite some superb performances by Oregon- based athletes such as Mary Slaney, Kory Tarpenning, Lance Deal, and Maria Mutola, the crowds at Pre had dwindled from a high of 13,680 in 1984 down to 5,500 in 1990. The meet, and the sport in general, was lacking an international flavor that would make it something extra special. Fortunately, help was on the way. The meet’s title sponsor, Nike, had been signing top athletes from around the globe. At the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, I met in the meet headquarters hotel lobby with Steve Miller, the recently appointed head of Global Athletics (Track & Field/Running) for Nike. He said, “Tom, I want to bring Sergey to compete at the Prefontaine Classic.” Sergey was Sergey Bubka, the world record holder in the pole vault, and along with Carl Lewis, the biggest name on the men’s side in track and field.
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