Tom Autzen and Rich Brooks, it’s time to step aside. Your money and coaching helped the University of Oregon reach respective levels in collegiate athletics, but the Ducks are looking to fly much further now. Our rinky-dink excuse for a college football stadium will soon be transformed, and with that change should come another.
Just imagine long-time Duck announcer Don Essig saying, “It never rains at Michael Jordan Stadium!” as the Ducks come running out of the tunnel onto the playing surface of Tiger Woods Field. Now, before you start flinging your arms over your head screaming, “Tradition, what about tradition?” stick with me.
Phil Knight has finally returned. His contribution to help renovate the Autzen Stadium and Hayward Field is unknown, but it is figured to be in the ballpark figure of $30 million to $50 million. For the self-made $4.3 billion man, this is about one percent of his total worth! Ironically, Knight’s announcement to financially return to the University came a day after Michael Jordan announced his physical return to NBA.
It doesn’t take a stockbroker on Wall Street to tell you that the return of Jordan means more money for Nike, and thus Phil Knight. In fact, in the days surrounding Jordan’s return, Nike’s stock jumped four points. What this means for Phil Knight is that he now has a little more spending money in his pocket, and what better way to spend it then to build a football stadium?
Now while Knight’s donation barely puts a dent in his pocketbook, it is huge for the University athletically and academically. It isn’t a secret that people in this world are willing to donate to athletics; it is just our nature. Americans rally around athletics, and the return of sports after the Sept. 11 tragedy proves this. For those who can write a check to help support their team, feel like part of the team. You cannot criticize people for donating money. It is their money, and they can do what they want with it.
Without donors, there is no way our beloved Ducks could be considered a contender for the national football championship this season, much less be able to step on the field. And without football, the concept of intercollegiate athletics would be non-existent. The only way college soccer, track, volleyball, cross country, swimming and tennis teams exist is because of money created by their football sugar daddy.
The part of the University south of the Willamette River benefits from Athletic Department donations as well. In case you haven’t noticed, the library and law school are named after the Knight Family. Mr. Knight and his wife also support 15 endowed professorships on this campus. Randy Pape and his wife each gave $1 million toward the building of the Ed Moshofsky Sports Center, also financially started the Business and Industrial Sales Program within the University’s College of Business.
Athletic and academic donations go hand in hand. From 1992 to 1998, the University completed the most successful fundraising campaign in state history. The Oregon Campaign raised $255.3 million for the University. During the same period, the football team was making the resurgence from Pacific-10 Conference bottom feeder to a perennial bowl game contender, and as already noted, college football teams don’t win without money. People are much more willing to open their wallets for sports, but while they are open, it is the perfect time for academics to swoop down and get their piece of the pie.
So OK, maybe renaming Autzen Stadium to Michael Jordan Stadium is a little extreme, but the point remains that America is a sports-dominated society and its presence travels all the way to the pocketbook. For those among us who feel college Athletic Department spending is out of control, just image where we would be without it. Our law school would still be stuck in mediocrity, the library would still be dark and dingy and many quality professors would be teaching elsewhere.
If the money is clean and given with good intentions, our school should take it, and in cases in which it isn’t, the University shouldn’t. Which reminds me, there soon may be a vacant place for Michael Jordan’s name on this campus after all.