https://nypost.com/2018/10/20/how-ni...ege-donations/
In 2005, Nike Chairman and co-founder Phil Knight issued a shocking mandate to his alma mater, the University of Oregon.
He told the university’s athletic director, Bill Moos, to fire his track and field coach Martin Smith.
At the time, Moos was the most successful athletic director in the school’s history, and he and Knight enjoyed a strong, decade-long relationship. But on this point, Moos disagreed — he refused to fire Smith.
For Knight, who is currently Forbes’ 16th richest person in the US, this was unacceptable.
He told university president Dave Frohnmayer that he wanted both Smith and Moos gone, and that he would withhold much-needed funding for the construction of the school’s new basketball arena until it was done.
Smith was forced out in late 2005; Moos left, after much pressure, in 2007. Knight then insisted that Pat Kilkenny, a university donor with no experience in athletics or education, replace Moos. Again, Knight got his way.Modal TriggerNike founder Phil Knight (left) held a virtual gun to late University of Oregon president Dave Frohnmayer (right) by dangling life-or-death medical funding, according to professor Nathan. The new book “
University of Nike: How Corporate Cash Bought American Higher Education University of Nike: How Corporate Cash Bought American Higher Education ” (Melville House), out Tuesday, exposes how Knight’s massive corporate donations to the University of Oregon’s athletic departments made him and his corporation the de facto leaders of the college.
After Oregon voters passed a measure in 1990 cutting funding for state universities by 20 percent, the publicly funded University of Oregon sought out corporate money.
Since 1994, Knight has donated almost $1 billion to the school, much of it going toward the construction or renovation of various athletic facilities.
But even as Knight’s generosity turned Oregon’s sports teams into national powerhouses, it also gave him increasing contr