The tiny Steve Prefontaine, growing up in Coos Bay, goes out for football. The bigger boys smash him like a bug.

He goes out for baseball and rides the bench, much to his frustration.

Finally, he discovers running. His ultracompetitive nature — he tries to win everything from pushup contests to, later, drinking games — helps him thrive on the track.

Soon, he is being recruited by coaches from universities across the country. Finally, he accepts a scholarship at the University of Oregon in Eugene, a national track powerhouse, and goes there determined to break Jim Ryun’s world mile record.

Ducks head coach Bill Bowerman (played by R. Lee Ermey) and assistant coach Bill Dellinger (Ed O’Neill) have other ideas.

They point Pre toward the three-mile run because they observe he has more endurance than kick.

You won’t see much of Eugene in “Prefontaine,” except for old clips of Pre going from coastal prep prodigy to one of the finest distance runners in the world. A paint job turns Peyton Field at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, into historic, legendary Hayward Field.

The only problem is the seven-lane track (Hayward has eight lanes).

Jared Leto stars as Prefontaine, the brash, cocky, determined runner who soon gains a huge following. Crowds chant “Go, Pre” as he wins race after race.

Soon, “Stop Pre” T-shirts also start showing up at meets. When a spectator offers him one, Pre gladly dons it for a victory lap — or laps, a habit that gets on rivals’ nerves — much to the amusement of his adoring fans.

Ermey plays Bowerman well. The coach who grew up around Fossil, Bowerman is a crusty curmudgeon enthralled with having such a talent on campus. The pair butt heads but soon gain a mutual respect.

Bowerman wants his runners to have every advantage. Much to his wife’s chagrin, he goes through waffle iron after waffle iron in his farm workshop trying to make a better shoe sole. (Eventually, he teams up with track walk-on Phil Knight to start the shoe company Nike.)

Dellinger is Bowerman’s trusty sidekick also charged with helping Pre reach his potential.

The movie is filmed like a documentary showing Pre’s life from early childhood to running in the 1972 Munich Olympics. There, Arab terrorists invade the Olympic Village and kill much of the Israeli delegation. Pre witnesses the tragedy unfolding from the balcony where he is trying to sleep. He wants to go home. The games are in limbo.

However, officials decide to restart the games and Pre is persuaded to stay and race the three mile.

Despite being only 21 — long-distance runners hit their primes far later — Pre, who coaches say has turned running “into a blood sport,” gives the world’s best all they can handle. He seeks the gold medal, nothing else. On the last turn, though, Pre allows himself to get boxed in and fails at his quest, finishing out of the medals in fourth.

Pre is furious.

As years go on, he leaves the university behind for life as a bartender while living in a tiny trailer. He sees how American runners lack the support — training facilities, sports medicines, jobs designed to work around their training schedules — many of the best foreign runners receive.

He fights amateur athletic authorities so he can compete against the best athletes between the Olympics.

With an eye on the 1976 Munich Olympics, Pre is right on course, setting American records in every distance from 2,000 meters to 10,000 meters.

At age 24, though, an automobile accident after a party — in honor of visiting Finnish athletes at a meet Pre is instrumental in arranging — cuts his quest short.

Two movies were filmed at about the same time on the Prefontaine legend — the other was “Without Limits.” Both camps tried to stare the other down. Neither blinked. Both movies have their merits.

“Prefontaine” is an entertaining look at one of the greatest times in Oregon sports history and at a man determined to overcome all odds and achieve his dreams.

Reach the author at jeffp557@gmail.com