Men of Oregon, I invite you to become students of your events. Running, one might say, is basically an absurd past-time upon which to be exhausting ourselves. But if you can find meaning, in the kind of running you have to do to stay on this team, chances are you will be able to find meaning in another absurd past-time: life.

Victory is in having done your best. If you've done your best, you've won.

The real purpose of running isn't to win a race, it's to test the limits of the human heart.

Now to explore the limits of the one competitor above everyone else you've always loved to face: Steve Prefontaine.

I still bother with runners I call hamburgers. They're never going to run any record times. But they can fulfill their own potential.

Several of my critics have said, 'Bowerman just tacks up a piece of paper in the locker room and turns his runners loose.' They're partially right. I do give the athletes a relatively free rein and for good reason. One of my principles is? 'Don't overcoach.'

The idea that the harder you work, the better you're going to be is just garbage. The greatest improvement is made by the man or woman who works most intelligently.