In this mornings Eugene Register Guard sports columnist Ron Bellamy quotes Nike's Phil Knight on the departure of Bill Moos and the selection of a successor:
"They're really at kind of a crossroads," Nike co-founder Phil Knight said. "This next choice is going to be really important. I know they're going to weigh it pretty heavily. I think they're going to try to find a way to where they don't get rushed into something. I think they're leaning toward an interim AD, so they don't get rushed into a permanent choice, because the choice is so important.
"Over the last 12 years, the department has grown up a lot. Now it's kind of a question of whether it grows up some more, or goes back the other way."
Had Moos become an impediment to the building of a new arena? Perhaps, in the short term, but that's speculation. Asked Monday if in some way he'd pushed Moos out, Knight said "for sure I didn't." Did he have any influence over Moos' departure?
"I know there wasn't any direct influence," Knight said. "Indirect, I suppose I made his job a little harder. It may have made Spokane look better faster than it would have otherwise, I don't know."
Knight said the topic of the arena "hasn't come up in a while, and I haven't thought about it for a while. At some point it will be revisited, but I don't know where I am on that right now."
Moos and Knight saw each other at halftime of Friday's Civil War in Corvallis. By then, Knight knew of Moos' yet-unannounced decision - the AD had told some folks, including football coach Mike Bellotti, who'd told his assistant coaches, so word was spreading. The two shook hands.
"I told him we had a lot of interactions over the 12 years, and there were a lot more positives than negatives, and he agreed," Knight said. As Moos put it: "He said `We've had some great times.' And I said, `Boy, have we.' "
Knight said that Moos "can look back on his 12 years with considerable pride," and that's true. It took a special person to get Oregon from there to here; it will certainly take another to get Oregon from here to a future in which Oregon athletics climb higher.
(To read Ron Bellamy's entire column click on the title above for a link)
