Media Credit: Jarod Opperman Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny (left) and University President Dave Frohnmayer announced a $100 million donation from Nike founder and University alumnus Phil Knight at a Monday press conference held in the Casanova Center. [Click to enlarge]

For the University's athletic department, Monday, Aug. 20 might just as well be Christmas in August. University President Dave Frohnmayer and Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny announced a $100 million donation from Phil and Penny Knight to found the Oregon Athletics Legacy Fund.

"This extraordinary gift, which its hard to find words to describe, allows the University of Oregon and its athletics department to reach for new heights otherwise unthinkable," Frohnmayer said.

"Gifts like this are almost unprecedented at any level in college athletics," Kilkenny said.

The fund, Frohnmayer and Kilkenny said, will act as the cornerstone to ensuring the University's athletics department remains self-supporting. In turn, the cornerstone for that stability will be a new multiple-use arena planned for the former Williams' Bakery site near campus, specifically for basketball and the other sports currently housed at McArthur Court. Kilkenny confirmed that after the new arena's construction, Mac Court and its site would no longer be under the umbrella of the athletic department, and included the possibility that it would be torn down for new construction for University academics.

"This is a giant step forward" toward building the new arena, Frohnmayer said. The donation toward the new endowment also counts toward the ongoing Campaign Oregon project, bringing the rough estimate of the campaign up to about $620 million to date. Allan Price, the University's vice president for advancement, said that the donation would be in addition to the campaign's goals, pushing the fundraising goal up to roughly $720 million.

"I hope it will move rapidly," Frohnmayer said when asked about the timeline for a full arena announcement. "Hopefully not months, but weeks."

"In the next nine months we've got to get plans done, get estimates in, and hopefully break ground next September," said Senior Associate Athletic Director Jim Bartko, adding that the goal was to get the arena done for the 2010 season. Bartko was singled out for credit by both Frohnmayer and Kilkenny for his work for the donation.

The announcement of the donation by the Knights was made Saturday night at an event held on the Nike campus in Beaverton after a closed-door scrimmage by the Oregon football team. Frohnmayer said there was an audible gasp and raucous applause after the announcement during what he described as "an evening full of high emotion and great enthusiasm for the University generally."

"It's something that I think people will remember for many, many years," Bartko said. "I think my wife finally understood why we moved to Eugene," Kilkenny added.

Frohnmayer was positive the economic impact of the new arena would be massive. "It will undoubtedly be the largest public works project ever undertaken in Lane County," Frohnmayer said. Bartko later added that part of the arena's plan would include approximately 50 to 60 non-Duck athletics events per year, which could act as potential revenue streams to help pay back the debt for the arena's construction.

The Knights have donated many times to the University, notably to the to the Knight Law Center and Knight Library in addition to the athletic department. Previous athletic donations included funds for renovating Autzen Stadium and building the Moshofsky Center.

Retaining The Pit's Character

Integral to building a new arena is retaining the cacophonous nature of Mac Court. Known colloquially as "The Pit" and credited with giving the Ducks an incredible home-field advantage, those involved with building the new arena are trying to influence the design in such a way as to maximize the noise created by the estimated 12 to 13,000 Duck fans who will see games there.

"I think Mac Court is a hard one (to recreate)," Bartko said. "We're going to be going from Mac Court, a mecca of college basketball. The scariest part is to make sure people are happy with the intensity we bring to the arena.

"Everything we've done to date is to get that bowl as tight as we can get."

Men's basketball head coach Ernie Kent was obviously excited for Monday's announcement. "This is just a very, very humbling moment right now," Kent said of the donation from the Knights.

Like Bartko, Kent's worry is to "keep Mac Court in mind" when designing the facility in order to retain the Ducks' home-court advantage.

"The underlying thing from everybody is to make it loud," Kent said.

Kent said that he is working to make sure that Oregon can keep high-level basketball recruits coming to the school to fill up the new arena. "The Elite Eight was the initial boost, because literally we were in the bus and our phone was ringing, and it was some of the top recruits in the country saying 'I want to come to Oregon,'" Kent said. "We cultivated that and continued that.

"This just gives us an incredible amount of momentum as we come back out to close some deals in September in our recruiting to discuss what our potential is for our basketball program."

Notes: Baseball team update

Kilkenny and Bartko gave a few details on the baseball team at Monday's press conference. Kilkenny shot down the possibility of a domed stadium (which had been rumored) and confirmed that there was a separate fundraising campaign being conducted to fund the baseball team's new stadium.

There was also confirmation from Kilkenny that UC Irvine head baseball coach Dave Serrano was not in town for an interview Monday, though he did confirm that they have previously interviewed Serrano for the job.

Bartko also said that the basketball arena's site could also house a baseball facility. Though he admitted that "I think we need to get a coach first," Bartko confirmed that the arena site could be a potential location for the new baseball team's diamond, saying "We need to find a place for it to be home."

dbonham@dailyemerald.com

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