SPRINGFIELD, Ore. — Vancouver native Roscoe Divine is one of a handful of runners to ever beat legendary middle-distance star Steve Prefontaine on the track, and did so in 1970 running his seventh — and fastest — sub-4-minute mile of his career.
Divine’s most vivid memories of a distance-running career cut short by injuries include racing big names, running low times and accomplishing other feats leading to eventual high school and college Hall of Fame inductions.
But running to the top, as he states, has double meaning and something he still incorporates today at 70 and living near the heart of the “Running Capital of the World.”
“If you want to get good at anything,” Divine said, “it takes time and it takes consistency.”
It’s hard not to think of Divine, part of Columbia River High School’s inaugural graduating class in 1965, as the most decorated distance runner to come out of Southwest Washington. Less than a year removed from a prep career that included back-to-back individual cross country state titles and winning the mile at state as a senior, Divine ran his first sub-4-minute mile for the University of Oregon at 18 in 1966 for legendary track coach Bill Bowerman.
As a senior in 1970, his winning mile time of 3 minutes, 56.3 seconds at the Oregon Twilight was a world best and beat his ex-teammate Prefontaine, a man became the subject of two Hollywood movies, two documentaries and four books after his death in 1975. Forty-three years later, Prefontaine still is one of track and field’s most analyzed athletes.
Divine’s legacy that began in Vancouver and traditions that have stayed with him for decades is why Columbia River cross country coach Josh Christensen incorporated the high school’s first state champion and member of the school’s inaugural Hall of Fame into their summer cross country camp in Eugene last week.
Christensen had two main goals for his River boys and girls cross country athletes on the trip: To have them fall more in love with cross country and expose the history of the sport through a major influence with historical ties to the school.
That’s where Divine comes in.
“We’re accomplishing big things,” said Christensen, also a math teacher at River, “but we’re taking a step forward where he’s been to the pinnacle. He was the man in Washington running. … He lived all these great things I want them to learn about.”
Divine said he wasn’t sure what he was planning to say to members of River’s boys and girls cross country teams at his home that overlooks the McKenzie River. Wisdom, traditions and history quickly emerged; running proved to be a life highlight, yet a means for frustration, too.
Vancouver is where Divine built a love for running that took him across all 50 states and Europe twice before retiring from the sport at 26 because of an Achilles tendon injury.
He flirted with breaking the national prep record in the mile as a high school senior when he clocked a sizzling 4 minutes, 10.5 seconds to win districts. This after 27 consecutive victories in cross country races.
He laughs thinking back to how much heat he took for quitting football in favor of distance running at a newly christened school — open to sophomores, juniors and seniors — still finding its identity.
“The kids were mad at me,” Divine said. “The principal was mad at me.”
Divine ran for the late Lee Cave, a science teacher who loved geology. Earlier in his career he coached at neighboring schools Fort Vancouver and Hudson’s Bay. He died in 2010.
The sure-hands of a 6-foot-1 ex-football receiver proved useful at the 1963 Hudson’s Bay Run-a-Ree when he swiftly picked up his shoe that got ripped off at the heel by another runner near the start.
Is it any surprise Divine came back to win the race?
He won that, and many more on $7.98 running shoes purchased from the trunk of a man’s vehicle — a man who later became the CEO and co-founder of Nike.
Divine still sees Phil Knight regularly.
Divine won cross country state titles as a junior and senior as a poverty-stricken kid whose father was dying of a brain tumor and mother, now 103 years old, supported their family in Felida through piano lessons.
His first-place finish senior year, in addition to Mark Henry (eighth), Tim Ramberg (10th), Dave Bischoff (24th), Terry Gudmunson (46th) and Mike McGill (106th), helped River to the school’s first team title in any sport. Divine also won the mile at the 1965 state track and field meet.
“We all had a lot of fun,” Divine said, reminiscing details of training runs around land that later became Skyview High School, down to the Columbia River and east toward Battle Ground. “I knew all of those guys really well. All good guys.”
From numerous college recruiting letters, he picked Oregon. Not afraid to put his name out there, he convinced meet officials to let him race in the all-Oregon Indoor at Portland’s Memorial Coliseum. That’s where he met Bowerman, a coach whose success breeded on finding the best talent and giving it the opportunity to grow. Divine became one of 11 men to run under 4-minute miles for the legendary track coach.
Few remember the finest details like Divine does, but months before finishing runner-up to world record holder Jim Ryun in the mile at the NCAA meet, the 1967 Oregon-Oregon State dual is a performance Divine still gleams over: a 3-minute, 59-second mile, 1:50 half-mile and a 48-second 440-yard relay split time on the old cinder track at then-Bell Field at Oregon State.
“That was a pretty good day’s work,” Divine said.
Injuries ended a possible shot at the Olympics. A stress fracture that kept him out of the NCAA meet limited future training, and he failed to make the 1972 Olympic team placing fifth in the mile qualifier. The next year, Divine ruptured an Achilles tendon.
At age 70 and self-employed as a building owner and developer all his adult life, Divine can’t run anymore. An injury while skiing down Mt. St. Helens years ago led to other means for cardiovascular fitness, such as tai chi.
What River’s runners got out of their dinner with Divine proved more than they bargained for.
Seniors Makenna John and Hanna Dyer were in awe of the experiences of a homegrown talent who prospered in a region known as the “Running Capital of the World.”
Evan Underland and Theron Kramer came to listen to running, yet gained more how to be successful, goal-oriented individuals through the sport they’ve grown to love.
Said Divine: “Running cross country is a valuable thing, “but you need to learn what you like. Try to find an area that you like. Do something every day.
“Find what are your values and stick to them, and you can get to a lot of places if you have a target.”
Underland and Kramer take that to heart from a man whose distance-running career paved the way for life lessons that continue to this day.
“(Running) was a small part of his life, comparatively,” Kramer said. “And he has so much more going on.”
“Not just running-wise,” Underland added, “just anything … go do something with your life and go for it.
“He’d be an amazing mentor to have.”
