Nike Chair Phil Knight Tops Most Influential People In Oregon Sports List

Nike Chair PHIL KNIGHT ranks first on the list of the Top 25 Most Influential People In Oregon Sports, according to John Canzano of the Portland OREGONIAN. The Nike co-Founder and top Univ. of Oregon donor last year “opened his legacy project (Matthew Knight Arena).” Knight's $100M pledge to UO and “his status as the state's No. 1 fan and booster gives him big-time juice.” Canzano: “Think the Ducks could have reached the national title game without Knight? Would you bet against them getting back someday with Knight around?” MLS Timbers Owner & President MERRITT PAULSON, who owns “not the state’s biggest sports operation, just the one run the best,” is second on the list. Paulson has “raised the profile of the state nationally.” Trail Blazers President LARRY MILLER ranks No. 12 on the list, and Canzano wrote Miller “keeps his head down, and the revenue flowing.” But his “failure" is an "awful Comcast television deal he can’t seem to solve” (Portland OREGONIAN, 7/24).