Phil Knight is an American businessman who founded Nike, Inc. Before all the fame and fortune Knight made his mark as a college athlete.
Phil Knight was born in Portland, Oregon, to Bill Knight, a lawyer who became a newspaper publisher. The younger Knight wanted to work at his dad’s newspaper, The Oregon Journal, but his father thought it would be better if his son found a job independently. Knight did most surprisingly–at his dad’s newspaper rival, The Oregonian, where he worked the morning shift. Every day after work, Phil ran home, a distance of seven miles.
Running soon became more than a recreational option. Knight ran track and field at the Unversity of Oregon under the guidance of Coach Bill Bowerman, who later joined Knight as a Nike co-founder. Knight was a middle-distance runner at Oregon–his best mile time was 4 minutes, 13 seconds–and he won three varsity letters in 1957, 1958, and 1959.
While Knight is best known for Nike, I wonder where his college track experiences fall on his “most successful” list.
One item on that list is surely Knight’s contributions over the years to college athletics, not only at the University of Oregon but well beyond. The Phil Knight Invitational is a national college basketball tournament in his honor, and Knight was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. A prolific philanthropist, Knight and his spouse Penny have contributed at least $1 billion to various causes over the years, including to various colleges and universities, and to support medical research.
Phil Knight (now 85 years of age) is one of a kind, a person who started running as a youth and never stopped.
