Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny Knight, committed $1 billion to the University of Oregon on Wednesday, and it’s the largest gift any comprehensive public university in the country has ever received.
The money will create the Knight College of Engineering at the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact in Eugene. The gift goes to academics, not the Ducks football team, which is 2-1 and ranked No. 20 in the Associated Press Top 25.
Knight College of Engineering plans
Robert Guldberg, the university’s vice president and Knight Campus executive director, said the money will come in over 10 years. It will pay for a third Knight Campus building, new faculty and staff and the college’s running costs for good.
The school hasn’t picked a site for the new building yet. The college will train engineers and applied scientists in bioengineering and other high-demand fields.
The Knights gave $500 million in 2016 to launch the Knight Campus and another $500 million in 2021 to grow it. That makes this their third gift of this size to the school in 10 years.
Oregon also faces a $65 million budget shortfall. However, Guldberg said the gift is tied to the Knight Campus and is “not an immediate fix” for that problem.
“To make an audacious dream a reality requires more than a vivid imagination. It also requires the sort of opportunity that our great American universities, both public and private, have historically provided. This is no time to abandon them,” Knight said in a statement.
How does Knight shape Oregon football?
The Nike co-founder earned his business degree at Oregon in 1959 and ran middle-distance races for the Ducks’ track team under coach Bill Bowerman. The two men later started Nike together.
The Knights also paid for the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex, the football operations center that opened next to Autzen Stadium in 2013. In addition, the school’s basketball arena carries the name of their late son, Matthew.
Oregon coach Dan Lanning cheered the couple after they gave $2 billion to the Oregon Health & Science University Knight Cancer Institute in 2025. “What an unbelievable gift! More evidence of how Phil and Penny are complete GAMECHANGERS!” Lanning wrote on X.
Oregon Ducks visit No. 12 USC
The news came three days before Oregon’s Big Ten opener. The No. 20 Ducks visit No. 12 USC (4-0) at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
Oregon started the season No. 2 in the poll. The Ducks beat Boise State 34-27, but then they lost 39-31 at Oklahoma State on Sept. 12 and fell to No. 21. They bounced back with an 84-0 win over Portland State on Sept. 18.
Oregon won the last meeting with USC, 42-27 at Autzen Stadium in November 2025.
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