Nike and Oregon – the state as well as its flagship university – go way back, and their relationship became a template for underfunded state universities all over the country. Josh Hunt takes a deep dive into this complicated and painful reality in his new book, “The University of Nike: How Corporate Cash Bought American Higher Education.”
I grew up in Portland, Oregon alongside the growth of Nike from a hip local shoe company to a global empire. Michael Moore’s film “The Big One” came out in my junior year of high school, and first blasted Phil Knight and Nike’s lack of action to curb its exploitative labor practices into the national spotlight. We all saw the swooshes on the jerseys of athletes at Oregon, and also at Michigan, Florida State, and my alma mater USC. But I definitely never understood the depth and breadth of the bargain Oregon and its then-president, Dave Frohnmayer, made with Knight and Nike, and the grip its implications still has on our public systems of higher education. But then I read this book, and I encourage you all to read it too.
Further Reading and Listening
– www.viajoshhunt.com
– https://twitter.com/viajoshhunt
– Communications Director Out at UO (Eugene Weekly, 2018)
– Oregon’s New “Football Performance Center” is a Decadent Monstrosity (Deadspin, 2013)
– State Higher Education Finance Report (SHEEO, 2017)
– “The Filthy Fifteen”
– Twitter thread on the Sackler/Purdue Pharma/OxyContin court case
– Aaron Sorkin Tells AOC to Keep Her Frisbee Off His Lawn
– Grateful Dead. Eugene, OR June 17, 1994 setlist
– Led Zeppelin – Ten Years Gone
