1971 Bill Dellinger's Office

In Bill Dellinger's Office, left to right,
Bill Dellinger (face blocked), Jim Ryun, Phil Knight, Steve Prefontaine

Once I’d found my Dunn Hall dorm and unpacked, I headed out on campus to take some photos to send back to my parents. Not only did I feel like a tourist, I was acting like one. The Oregon basketball team played in McArthur Court, an aging, ivy-clad arena that dated to 1926. Next to “Mac Court,” I discovered, were the shoe-box-sized offices of all the university’s athletic coaches, including the man I was supposed to check in with, Dellinger.

His door was open. Dellinger, it turned out, wasn’t alone. He’d been chatting with three others, two of whom I’d seen in magazines and newspapers. I tried not to gawk but it was like a folk-music fan suddenly seeing Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. There sat Prefontaine and Ryun, along with some other guy, a little older, who did not appear to be cut from quite the same athletic cloth as the other two.

“Come in, Mr. Bence,” said Dellinger. “You might recognize a couple of these guys. Steve, this is Steve Prefonainte and Jim Ryun.” I shook their hands, later wondering if it would be sacreligious to ever wash it. “And this is a former Oregon middle-distance runner, Phil Knight, now with Blue Ribbon Sports.”

I kept gawking at Pre and Ryun. Dellinger turned to the others. “This is Steve Bence, an incoming freshman half-miler.”

“I’ve heard about you,” Prefontaine said. “From Spain, right?”

“Yeah,” I said, momentarily stunned—and flattered—that he’d even heard of me.

We made some small talk. Because I had my camera, I took a picture of the three of them, which is still one of my most cherished, and then excused myself. Frankly, I felt awkward being in the same room with these three legends: Dellinger, Pre, and Ryun. I wondered if the other guy, Knight, felt as privileged as I did.

“Good to meet you and good luck this year,” said Ryun.

“Your English is very good,” said Prefontaine.

I walked out of the meeting on an are-you-kidding-me? high, wasting no time in writing my folks. I’d just met my new coach, a three-time Olympian, and perhaps the two finest distance runners in America, Pre and Ryun. In person!

The irony was that it was the obscure other guy in that gathering—Knight—who would change my life. Forever.