The most prominent names associated with the University of Oregon gathered for an evening full of high emotion on Saturday, capped off with host Phil Knight’s announcement that he and wife Penny has pledged a $100 million gift to create the Oregon Athletics Legacy Fund; it is the largest gift ever given to the University. 

UPDATE: The Ol’ Dirty finally got their story posted. Took ya long enough!

   President Dave Frohnmayer and Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny did not elaborate on the festivities of the announcement, only that many top donors, both athletic and academic, were in attendance, and the announcement was “suspenseful,” “inspired everyone present” and was bestowed in an “almost spiritual” fashion. Something about a “strategic seizure of the moment” by Knight was also mentioned – is it possible that Knight is a sorcerer? A gift like this has been expected for some time, especially since the University hired Kilkenny. Knight did not attend Monday’s press conference, but Frohnmayer said the Nike co-founder had decided “the time was right” for this gift given the current direction of the athletic department.
 

    The $100 million will go toward Campaign Oregon, putting the total over its $600 million goal – at roughly $630 million. The fundraising campaign will continue for 10 months and hopes are it will reach $700 million total with Knight’s gift. Mac Court has simply run past its age and is unsafe, Frohnmayer said, and replacing it has been considered part of Campaign Oregon from day one. He made clear that the future of Mac Court will be for academic use.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 16:54 by Ossie and is filed under Campus, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.