because Phil Knight chooses to donate millions of dollars to UO Athletics?

I keep reading about how the success of Oregon football, basketball, baseball, softball, golf and other sports is solely built on the money from Phil Knight ... and somehow that makes those accomplishments by those student-athletes less worthy of respect ...

What do you say to a rival fan to address the negative connotation they attach to Oregon's "sugar-daddy"?

I can't control what Phil Knight decides to do with his money - really I can't.

But I am a loyal fan of Oregon and I admit I take some borrowed pride from the athletic teams' success while wearing my alam mater school colors in public. Am I a bad fan?

Tell the rivals "F--- you and the horses you rode in on"!

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--- Green85 wrote:

because Phil Knight chooses to donate millions of dollars to UO Athletics?

I keep reading about how the success of Oregon football, basketball, baseball, softball, golf and other sports is solely built on the money from Phil Knight ... and somehow that makes those accomplishments by those student-athletes less worthy of respect ...

What do you say to a rival fan to address the negative connotation they attach to Oregon's "sugar-daddy"?

I can't control what Phil Knight decides to do with his money - really I can't.

But I am a loyal fan of Oregon and I admit I take some borrowed pride from the athletic teams' success while wearing my alam mater school colors in public. Am I a bad fan?

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Everything every school has was built with the money brought in through revenue, donations and subsides. If they don't like the level of their school's donations, perhaps they should quit being a b*tch and chip in.

Even if their premise has merit, so what?

Oregon still does more because of donors like you and me. We contribute to its success. No one can denigrate that point.

Even if other schools had a donor like Phil, what makes them think that their admins would use it wisely. Our connection to Nike insures that our AD is going to look for the quirky, aggressive, and fun side of this business. I don't think any other school could/would do that.

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--- Green85 wrote:

because Phil Knight chooses to donate millions of dollars to UO Athletics?

I keep reading about how the success of Oregon football, basketball, baseball, softball, golf and other sports is solely built on the money from Phil Knight ... and somehow that makes those accomplishments by those student-athletes less worthy of respect ...

What do you say to a rival fan to address the negative connotation they attach to Oregon's "sugar-daddy"?

I can't control what Phil Knight decides to do with his money - really I can't.

But I am a loyal fan of Oregon and I admit I take some borrowed pride from the athletic teams' success while wearing my alam mater school colors in public. Am I a bad fan?

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--- Quack1 wrote:

Everything every school has was built with the money brought in through revenue, donations and subsides. If they don't like the level of their school's donations, perhaps they should quit being a b*tch and chip in.

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Didn't Gordo have a stat that even without Knight Oregon still has more $1000+ donors than most of the PAC (or maybe just OSU)? His money is great but there are still a lot of donors that are doing their part.

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--- FightnDucks wrote:

Even if their premise has merit, so what?

Oregon still does more because of donors like you and me. We contribute to its success. No one can denigrate that point.

Even if other schools had a donor like Phil, what makes them think that their admins would use it wisely. Our connection to Nike insures that our AD is going to look for the quirky, aggressive, and fun side of this business. I don't think any other school could/would do that.


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Plus, people forget that Phil Knight hasn't always given unbelievable amounts of money to Oregon. The athletic department and coaches like Brooks and Bellotti sold Knight on a vision of where Oregon could be, and that's how it started. That's how it works at every successful athletic department. If a program starts to show potential, then more donors will step forward to contribute to future success. The same thing happened at Oregon State when Riley and Erickson showed that they could be competitive.

As for whether having a Phil Knight makes you less of a fan....it doesn't. People will always be jealous of other teams having success, and they wouldn't turn down a Phil Knight if they had that chance. Oregon State fans believe that re-branding through Nike is a bad idea for them, but they are so wrong. Very few people identify with OSU as being Oregon State outside of this state, so it makes a lot of sense to differentiate the program into something different.

Over the years I have donated thousands of dollars to Oregon.
I am proud to support Oregon with my dollars.

And yes, I am VERY THANKFUL that people like Pat KilKenny, the Chambers Family, the Pape's, the Moshofsky's, and dozens of other people with money have chosen to invest VERY LARGE SUMS OF MONEY in Oregon athletics.

And yes, I am VERY VERY THANKFUL that Pihl Knight has made HUGE investments in facilities to help build a great place for Oregon student-athletes to succeed.

Go Ducks!

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--- FightnDucks wrote:

Even if their premise has merit, so what?

Oregon still does more because of donors like you and me. We contribute to its success. No one can denigrate that point.

Even if other schools had a donor like Phil, what makes them think that their admins would use it wisely. Our connection to Nike insures that our AD is going to look for the quirky, aggressive, and fun side of this business. I don't think any other school could/would do that.

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--- Green85 wrote:

because Phil Knight chooses to donate millions of dollars to UO Athletics?

I keep reading about how the success of Oregon football, basketball, baseball, softball, golf and other sports is solely built on the money from Phil Knight ... and somehow that makes those accomplishments by those student-athletes less worthy of respect ...

What do you say to a rival fan to address the negative connotation they attach to Oregon's "sugar-daddy"?

I can't control what Phil Knight decides to do with his money - really I can't.

But I am a loyal fan of Oregon and I admit I take some borrowed pride from the athletic teams' success while wearing my alam mater school colors in public. Am I a bad fan?

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Actually, you are more of a fan.

If you live in Oregon, you are not only voluntarily supporting Oregon athletics, you are involuntarily subsidizing bark rat athletic failure too.

College athletics have never been "fair."

Is it "fair" that USC is in Los Angeles or Texas is in Texas?

NIKE was founded AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON. Why shouldn't the university and it's athletics benefit from that?

Should Montana State be pissed that OSU invented potato salad? Is that fair?

"Oregon still does more because of donors like you and me."

+1000

That's a point that is overlooked quite often.

FightnDucks wrote: Even if their premise has merit, so what?

Oregon still does more because of donors like you and me. We contribute to its success. No one can denigrate that point.

Even if other schools had a donor like Phil, what makes them think that their admins would use it wisely. Our connection to Nike insures that our AD is going to look for the quirky, aggressive, and fun side of this business. I don't think any other school could/would do that.

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--- Green85 wrote:

because Phil Knight chooses to donate millions of dollars to UO Athletics?

I keep reading about how the success of Oregon football, basketball, baseball, softball, golf and other sports is solely built on the money from Phil Knight ... and somehow that makes those accomplishments by those student-athletes less worthy of respect ...

What do you say to a rival fan to address the negative connotation they attach to Oregon's "sugar-daddy"?

I can't control what Phil Knight decides to do with his money - really I can't.

But I am a loyal fan of Oregon and I admit I take some borrowed pride from the athletic teams' success while wearing my alam mater school colors in public. Am I a bad fan?

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OSU fans seem to think there is something noble about being a crack whore (OSU) versus a high class call girl (Oregon)...

It's not as if other schools don't have several multimillionaire donors, it's just that they don't a really well-known billionaire donor/alum who got started on his first million working with another Oregonian.

I donated money before Oregon became so successful and have continued to do so.

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--- laxduck wrote:

College athletics have never been "fair."

Is it "fair" that USC is in Los Angeles or Texas is in Texas?

NIKE was founded AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON. Why shouldn't the university and it's athletics benefit from that?

Should Montana State be pissed that OSU invented potato salad? Is that fair?

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I don't know about Montana State, but I am pretty sure that Idaho is pissed.

Oregon has like 30-40% more donors than Oregon State.  I forget where we stand compared to UW.

Simply put, Oregon State lacks quality fan support compared to most BCS AQ schools - which includes both small and large donors.

OS has the brother-in-law of the most popular President ever coaching their basketball team, and they still stink.

I happen to think that Phil Knight is the most generous alum of any college on earth. If our opponents don't like it, they can kiss our collective rear ends.

He and his wife have made being a Duck fan much more fun.

GO DUCKS!

Correction: Oregon State has the brother in law of the President coaching their basktball team, and they absolutely stink.

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--- PDXDuckFan wrote:

OS has the brother-in-law of the most popular President ever coaching their basketball team, and they still stink.

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He probably is along with Pickens at okie st. But do you believe even with PK that Oregon doesn't lag behind fan bass at USC, Cal, UCLA, ASU, SU or UW?

Other fans resent Oregon because they were a bottom dweller that didn't know their place and they changed it up. But nobody seems to resent how ND, USC, OU or tOsu....got there leg up early last century with big money and cheating and shady deals. It's much harder to do it today with all the rules and scrutiny then when USC used to sign 200 kids they just didn't want playing elsewhere. If you think SEC is dirty now they built those programs with $100 handshakes and girls and houses...far beyond Reggie Bush stuff. There are NCAA rules today because of what the SEC did for decades.

But let's cry about what PK does for Oregon. Plz....,

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--- DuckPride100 wrote:

I happen to think that Phil Knight is the most generous alum of any college on earth. If our opponents don't like it, they can kiss our collective rear ends.

He and his wife have made being a Duck fan much more fun.

GO DUCKS!

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go back about 30 years, long before Phil was such an influence. It has been a slow steady build. Fans/donors were sensing a change and wanted it so bad, they started to build this thing with donations and, simply, support. It is always an interesting read when an article or book is written about the building of the program. It really has been a slow methodical rise.

Back in the day, we were the poor sisters of the league, looking up at the UWs and USCs of the world who vastly outsptent us.

T. Boone Pickens is very generous donor to OK State, but he is not in Phil Knight's class.

Having said that, OK State is lucky to have Mr. Pickens in their corner.

GO DUCKS!

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--- Gladstone Gander wrote:

He probably is along with Pickens at okie st. But do you believe even with PK that Oregon doesn't lag behind fan bass at USC, Cal, UCLA, ASU, SU or UW?

Other fans resent Oregon because they were a bottom dweller that didn't know their place and they changed it up. But nobody seems to resent how ND, USC, OU or tOsu....got there leg up early last century with big money and cheating and shady deals. It's much harder to do it today with all the rules and scrutiny then when USC used to sign 200 kids they just didn't want playing elsewhere. If you think SEC is dirty now they built those programs with $100 handshakes and girls and houses...far beyond Reggie Bush stuff. There are NCAA rules today because of what the SEC did for decades.

But let's cry about what PK does for Oregon. Plz....,

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--- DuckPride100 wrote:

I happen to think that Phil Knight is the most generous alum of any college on earth. If our opponents don't like it, they can kiss our collective rear ends.

He and his wife have made being a Duck fan much more fun.

GO DUCKS!

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