NYT Takes a Tour of Phil Knight's UO Largess

Times' story looks at Duck football's $68 million training facility.

It's hard to ignore Phil Knight's influence on the University of Oregon campus—from the library named after his family, to the law school named for his dad, to the basketball arena named after Knight's son. 


Those on the Eugene campus are always aware of what his cash has bought. But his latest endeavor—a $68 million,145,000-square-foot football training facility—caught the eye of the New York Times. 

A NYT reporter took a three-hour tour of the Ducks' building and writes in an Aug. 2 article about its amenities, such as Nike football leather upholstered walls, locker rooms that can be accessed with a thumbprint scan, foosball tables imported from Barcelona (because everyone knows they make the best ones), and at least 250 television screens

“We are the University of Nike,” Jeff Hawkins, the senior associate athletic director of football administration and operations told the New York Times. “We embrace it. We tell that to our recruits.” 

  

WWeek 2015

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