Of course, last week the big new was that big time Oregon donor, Pat Kilkenny, was named by University of Oregon President, Dave Frohnmayer, to replace Bill Moos as Oregon's Athletic Director. I think this is an excellent choice and to be frank a big surprise. Dave Frohnmayer, my old Torts professor in law school, is a very cautious person and the naming of Kilkenny is an "outside the box" choice. The conventional choice would have been an assistant athletic director or an AD at another university .In picking Kilkenny, Frohnmayer picked some one who bleeds green and yellow and has no agenda other than to help the Ducks. He will not use this job as a "stepping stone" for another job as AD at a more prestigious university. As the former chief executive of a large San Diego insurance company, which he build, he has the organizational skills to lead the Oregon Athletic Department. He is good friends with fellow major donor Phil Knight and if any one can get a new basketball arena build it is Pat Kilkenny. He has already spent $1,500,000.00 of his own money to come up with the building plans for the arena. In addition he was the primary donor of an almost $2 million dollar gift to Bill Moos to get him to go away so that Phil Knight would be more likely to donate to the basketball arena project which can not be built without his help. Knight and Moos did not like each other and it has been reported that Knight of Nike would not donate as long as Moos was AD. Now that road block has been removed at a cost of almost 2 million dollars.
Some have criticised the naming of Kilkenny because of that fact he is a donor and has no athletic administrative experience. However athletic administration is not rocket science and he can hire good people to help him. Hopefully he will get rid of some of the "dead wood" in the Athletic Department. While there are some good people at the Cas Center, there are also a number who are arrogant and feel they don't need to cultivate new fans and donors because they can raise all the money they need from donation requirements for football tickets. I am sure this arrogance flowed down from Bill Moos. I am glad to see him go... just wish it hadn't cost so much to see him go.A good hire for Kilkenny would be to get Jim Bartko to come back from Cal in some capacity. I understand they are close .
Kilkenny who build a multi million dollar insurance company that generates over a billion dollars in premiums has, in is mid 50's age wise, become a self made man. He is now retired from his insurance business and has new mountains to climb. He can devote his remaining productive years to a new quest. That quest, is to build a new basketball arena and to leave a lasting legacy to the University he loves. He now has his "dream Job" and the University of Oregon is lucky there are people like Pat Kilkenny and Phil Knight. Good Luck and Go Ducks!
