Phil Knight Essay

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Phil Knight is a man who just wanted to give back to his community and help out however he could. He was never someone who was unfair, greedy, or selfish but a selfless and fair man who wanted the best for everyone. Therefore he is a Captain of Industry from all of the big deeds that he has done overtime.
Phil Hampson Knight was born on February 24, 1938 in Portland Oregon. He grew up in Eastmoreland where he went to Cleveland high school. His father owned a newspaper place Oregon Journal but never gave Phil a job there so he went to The Oregonian newspaper and there kept track of sport scores during the night shift. After he graduated high school, he went to the University of Oregon. At the University of Oregon, he was a runner that could …show more content…

After one year of active duty in the Army, Knight went to Stanford Graduate School of Business. There, that’s when he knew that he wanted to become an entrepreneur and in 1962 graduated with a master’s degree in business administration from the school. After graduating, he went to Japan where he discovered a brand of running shoes. He talked to the owner, Mr. Onitsuka and they made a deal where Knight had rights to sell his shoes to the western part of the United States. He had to get a job as an accountant because the shoes weren’t being sent to him for a year. As soon as he got the shoes, he sent some to his running coach Bill Bowerman and Bowerman not only purchased the shoes but he also wanted to be partners with Knight. On January 25, 1964, the partnership was sealed and Blue Ribbon Sports was created. His first major sale came from green Plymouth Valiant automobile and it allowed him to leave his accounting job and fully work at Blue Ribbon Sports. In 1978, an employee mentioned that the company should be called Nike because Nike meant the Greek winged goddess of victory. The famous Nike design came from a student named Carolyn Davidson in 1971. Knight would later …show more content…

He donated $105 million to where he got his masters in 2006. In 2016, he gave $400 million to start the Knight-Hennessy Scholars graduate-level education program. He donated millions to the University of Oregon’ academics. He donated $500 million to the University of Oregon for creating  a three-building laboratory and research science complex. He donated $100 million to create the University of Oregon Athletics. In 2013, he gave $68 million to help with the football program. $19.2 million went to sport projects. $500 million went to creating a new campus for science

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