One Duck who has always been there for The University of Oregon Athletic Department and the Ducks is Pat Kilkenny. It's easy to become cynical about today's world of high finance in college sports but Pat Kilkenny has always been there when the Ducks have needed him and he deserves our thanks. The Oregonian today summarizes the help he has given the Ducks. Kilkenny paid $1.5 million in planning costs for the proposed basketball arena to replace McArthur Court. He did this knowing it could be just a lot of fancy drawings if the arena was never built. He basically did it to help "jump start" the process after the old plan of building an arena next to "The Pit" died. Now the San Diego Insurance executive has put up much of the funding for the nearly $2 million settlement agreement with Athletic Director Bill Moos to as he said facilitate "a fitting ending for a person who served the university well."
Kilkenny said he was not involved in negotiations over the settlement agreement with Moos. He was approached only recently about whether he could help financially.... and as we know he answered the call.(see post below) Kilkenny said "I'm not sure the last two years have been what anybody wanted including Bill" While there is no direct link between Moos resignation and the arena project Kilkenny said "I don't view this as anything other than constructive......I don't see how anybody else could view it as anything other than constructive." Some have said that Nike's Phil Knight would not contribute to the new basketball arena till Bill Moos was gone as AD because of their past disagreements.
The Oregonian sports story by Ken Goe and Rachel Bachman point out the settlement agreement with Moos calls for him to receive nearly twice what he would have been paid had he stayed at Oregon for the remainder of his contract which runs through June 2008.
Regardless, we Ducks all owe a big thanks to Pat Kilkenny and if the new basketball arena is built he will have been a big part of getting it done.
( To read the Oregonian sports story that this post is based upon click on the title above for a link)
