Jason Vondersmith of the Portland Tribune has a news story about the hiring of Pat Kilkenny. Click on the title for a link. Some interesting quotes from the news story:
In a move that appears to be done explicitly to get the university’s basketball arena built, Oregon hired longtime booster Pat Kilkenny as athletic director on Wednesday.
Kilkenny, who sold his highly successful, San Diego-based Arrowhead General Insurance Agency last summer, agreed to a two-year contract. He says “I wouldn’t count it out” when asked whether he would stay longer, but UO President Dave Frohnmayer would not apply the “interim” tag to Kilkenny’s title,....
Kilkenny, a Heppner native who attended the U of O from 1970 to ’74 but did not get a degree,...
Kilkenny also donated $2 million to Bill Moos’ resignation fund, begging the question: Did he have eyes on the AD job when he helped ease Moos out the door?
“I know Pat Kilkenny was not thinking, ‘Pat Kilkenny, Athletic Director,’ and I know Dave Frohnmayer wasn’t,” Frohnmayer says.....
Frohnmayer says a “long-term member” of the athletic department suggested Kilkenny as the next athletic director. The university set up a search committee and considered several dozen candidates – no current athletic directors at other universities, Frohnmayer says.
“He was drafted. He did not apply,” Frohnmayer says....
An obvious question at the press conference was not pursued beyond peripheral mention: Can the chief administrator of the department still donate to athletic projects? Apparently, yes.
“I assume the university will still cash my checks,” says Kilkenny, who acknowledges that he wants the arena project to have broken ground by the end of his two-year contract.The university has purchased land for a new basketball arena, but donation promises have been slow to come in. It’s expected that Nike founder Phil Knight, a generous UO booster, will donate a large portion of the cost of building the arena.
Kilkenny will make a salary and voluntarily donate it to the athletic department, Frohnmayer says. Outgoing AD Moos will help facilitate the transition, but he won’t stay beyond his departure date of March 31.
It’s a different move, to hire a booster as an athletic director. But Frohnmayers points to the same type of hirings at Michigan and Purdue. Kilkenny says taking on the AD responsibility represents how the UO has used “incredible innovation” in building it athletic empire....
He has a wife, Stephanie, and no children. Kilkenny says the couple will look to move to Eugene and buy a home.....
. His insurance company did $1 billion in business at the time of its sale.
