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I heard that Mariota thanked Phil Knight
ForeskinWalletDawg
Member Posts: 238
But did he thank the Indonesians?
ForeskinWalletDawg
Member Posts: 238
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In unrelated news, the odds that Mariota will have a lucrative endorsement contract with Uncle Phil upon declaring for the draft?
You have to thank Phil. The equipment, training facilities, locker room, academic center, indoor practice facility, weight room, football complex, uniforms, and stadium are all there because of Phil Knight. Oregon spend a couple million on Autzen way back when and hasn't spent a fucking dime since.
Phil is the reason why Oregon has the best of the best and the reason why the AD can pour money into being great at sports no one cares about. Without Phil Knight Oregon would be Oregon State. He's the reason why UW is never coming back.
he's an American success story, having built up his empire from the ground, his business has completely transformed sports and made sports, all sports, a much bigger deal in our society than they were, and both he and his Dad are alumni of the school.
i really don't get what the issue is. every thing that fucker does is calculated to better the University of Oregon, and not just sports.
soooooooo, can someone remind me again why we don't want an Uncle Phil? I don't remember the party line.
As for why Washington "isn't coming back," that's a rich statement. There are built in advantages for the University of Washington that Oregon will never have. The one advantage Oregon has that Washington doesn't have at the moment is their own version of a Phil Knight, T Boone, etc. But our downturn has been as much about the coaches and leadership of the program than it has been anything that we have necessarily lost.
In the PAC North going forward, taking out of the equation, I'd buy Washington stock on a go-forward basis before I bought Stanford, Cal, Oregon State, or the Cuogs.
What's fun is that what is happening now had its genesis in the mid-90's when I was at UofO. I actually used to work part-time in Dave Frohnmayer's (the then-president's) office, and there was a very detailed plan that they had been working on WRT moving the university forward after the state basically de-funded it in the wake of Measure 5. Everything that was only being talked about in broad detail is actually happening - the independent board, athletics as part of a national campaign to increase awareness of the University, the first capital investment program, and now the new $2BN program.
The ultimate goal is to build a university with world-class programs in biotech, sports medicine and sports management in the B-school, upgrade the law school (happening), and eventally maybe even re-establish a medical school to facilitate research funding (universities with medical schools get about 3x the research funding compared to universities without med schools)
In the 1990's part of that goal was a $1BN endowment. I've heard that the endowment goal is now $2BN.
The last REAL President, Lariviere, got canned by the old state board for pushing too hard to get his way, but after they shit-canned him, the Lege caved and gave the UO (and PSU and I think Oregon State as well) independent boards of their own- which was really the last major hurdle.
I hate to say it, but if I was in high school today and looking at schools, having such a program (particularly if there was an established history of success for its graduates) would have made me give serious consideration about going to that school.
Like AZ Duck said, the official cutting of the ties from the state vis a vis the independent board was a huge hurdle for that school. The state of Oregon has been as anemic as the state of Washington in funding higher ed. Washington learned from the Michigan example years ago that they had behave somewhat like a private school and fend for themselves and raise money. Hence the original "Campaign for Washington" back in the day with a goal of $200 million. I was there when that was a lofty goal. Now it's nothing (even Oregon's campaign is $2 billion). The UCs are learning this now too as state funding had finally really dried up for them too.
I think Washington does have advantages, but I tend not to think of them in the FS Iron Laws sense.
Phil's mark on UofO is going to be somewhat indelible. At a minimum, it will last through our life time. And one thing that the Oregon example has helped with is give people another example to cite that funding sports is not necessarily a detraction from academics. They can be complimentary in many ways.
Even Harvard throws serious $$ at its sports facilities. My daughter was on the Charles earlier this fall and told me that Harvard has two separate boat house complexes: one for the men and a separate one for the women. Each one is huge and loaded with all the best of best and would be more than adequate for both teams. Abundance. They also recruit all over the planet for rowers. This is just one (albeit important) sport. They care.
I was the first one in the gym to wear Nike shoes because Downtown Freddy Brown was a Nike guy in the 70s. He had to be one of the first