{"id":28163,"date":"2026-09-24T11:41:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T11:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/?p=28163"},"modified":"2026-09-24T11:41:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T11:41:26","slug":"nike-cofounder-phil-knight-makes-largest-known-donation-to-public-flagship-university-made-over-an-unscheduled-call-university-president-calls-the-extraordinary-gift-an-endorsement-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/?p=28163","title":{"rendered":"Nike cofounder Phil Knight makes largest known donation to public flagship university, made over an unscheduled call, University president calls the &#8216;extraordinary gift an endorsement of &#8230;&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-134460456,imgsize-63463,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg\" alt=\"Nike cofounder Phil Knight makes largest known donation to public flagship university, made over an unscheduled call, University president calls the 'extraordinary gift an endorsement of ...'\" title=\"Nike co-founder Phil Knight\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"Nike co-founder Phil Knight\">Nike co-founder Phil Knight<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Nike cofounder Phil Knight just made the largest known donation to a public flagship university in the US. According to a New York Times report, Phil Knight and his wife Penny have donated a whopping $1 billion to the University of Oregon.<!-- --> The donation, surfaced from an unscheduled call, will go toward establishing an engineering college in the University. The latest pledge adds to previous donations by the Knights. Last week, they committed $1.1 billion to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center and Providence Heart Institute in Portland. In 2025, they gave $2 billion to OHSU\u2019s Knight Cancer Institute. Knight, 88, has a net worth of nearly $23 billion, according to Bloomberg.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"5\"\/>Responding to the donation, Karl Scholz, president of the University of Oregon, told Fortune: \u201cThis extraordinary gift is an endorsement of what higher education delivers. It gives us the ability to scale innovation, accelerate impact, and meet the demand for skilled engineering required by the industries of tomorrow, all without placing that financial burden on state taxpayers.\u201d<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"7\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Nike co-founder has given billions to Oregon causes<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>The couple has also made major donations linked to University of Oregon athletics. They have previously given $100 million to build the university\u2019s basketball arena, named in honour of their late son, Matthew Knight.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"12\"\/>Phil Knight\u2019s support has also helped create strong ties between the university and Nike. Oregon athletes have access to new and exclusive Nike gear, along with support related to name, image and likeness (NIL) deals. Because of the close relationship, some people call Oregon the \u201cUniversity of Nike.\u201d<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"16\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Phil Knight\u2019s donation comes as US university funding faces uncertainty<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>Phil Knights\u2019 donation comes as federal support for universities faces uncertainty. In early 2025, the Trump administration laid off thousands of workers at federal science agencies, delayed some grant payments to universities and sought cuts to funding for research overheads. The administration also withdrew some DEI grants.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"19\"\/>Additionally, the White House\u2019s fiscal 2026 budget proposal called for a nearly 36% cut in non-defense science research and development funding. It also proposed cuts of nearly 57% at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and more than 40% at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). However, Congress largely rejected those proposed cuts and kept science funding mostly unchanged.<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/technology\/tech-news\/nike-cofounder-phil-knight-makes-largest-known-donation-to-public-flagship-university-made-over-an-unscheduled-call-university-president-calls-the-extraordinary-gift-an-endorsement-of-\/articleshow\/134460127.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nike co-founder Phil Knight Nike cofounder Phil Knight just made the largest known donation to a public flagship university in the US. According to a New York Times report, Phil Knight and his wife Penny have donated a whopping $1 billion to the University of Oregon. The donation, surfaced from an unscheduled call, will go [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-31"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg","large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg","blogsy-small":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg","blogsy-small-tall":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg","blogsy-small-square":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg","blogsy-small-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg","blogsy-medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg","blogsy-medium-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg","blogsy-large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg","blogsy-wide":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8709732a479614e7a8aa24d3eb1b239f30dc6d90c61464ed495001e7a469d856?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"Nike co-founder Phil Knight Nike cofounder Phil Knight just made the largest known donation to a public flagship university in the US. According to a New York Times report, Phil Knight and his wife Penny have donated a whopping $1 billion to the University of Oregon. The donation, surfaced from an unscheduled call, will go [&hellip;]","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36 \u0b2c\u0b3f\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":1,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":2,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg",400,225,false],"medium":["https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg",300,169,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nike-co-founder-phil-knight.jpg",150,84,false]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/author\/admin"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8709732a479614e7a8aa24d3eb1b239f30dc6d90c61464ed495001e7a469d856?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"<a href=\"#\" class=\"category-link category-link-31\">\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36 \u0b2c\u0b3f\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}