Which university did Nike Inc. co-founder Phil Knight attend when he studied accounting?

Nike Inc. co-founder Phil Knight attended the University of Oregon when he studied accounting.

Knight enrolled at the University of Oregon in Eugene and graduated in 1959. While there, he ran middle-distance races for the Oregon track team coached by Bill Bowerman. That relationship became central to the later formation of Blue Ribbon Sports, the company that preceded Nike.

Knight’s interest in athletic footwear developed through a graduate-school paper written at Stanford University, where he earned an MBA in 1962. In that paper, he considered whether imported Japanese running shoes could challenge established German brands in the American market.

The two universities are therefore easy to confuse. The University of Oregon was Knight’s undergraduate institution and the setting for his connection with Bowerman; Stanford was where he completed his business degree. Knight and Bowerman founded Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964, initially distributing Onitsuka Tiger footwear before developing their own Nike products.