Bill Moos
continued from page 2E
team in a bowl game, with the others
being Purdue, Tennessee and Stan
ford. And we were the only one who
won a bowl game, so that makes us a
little bit more elite than them. This is
significant because those are the
kinds of schools we want to be asso
ciated with. The real judge of the
program will be to prove that you
can do that year in-and year-out.
Q: Along those same lines, what
are your keys to keeping the Oregon
program a success in the year 2010?
Or is that too far to look forward to?
A: Oh no, not at all. We certainly
form a vision and a plan to keep our
selves successful. The one thing that
I believe is so important is to keep
that continued vision among Presi
dent Dave Frohnmayer, Vice Presi
dent Dam Williams and many others
that are pertinent to our cause. Just
to get everybody realizing the im
portance of a successful intercolle
giate athletic program and what it
can do for an entire institution.
We feel that the expansion of
Autzen Stadium is critical to our fu
ture. When you look at the fact that
we’ve discontinued football season
ticket sales for the past two years and
have led the Pac-10 in attendance in
terms of percentage of capacity for
four of the last five years, it goes to
show you that we need more seats.
Football creates over half of our en
tire budget and in order for our
coaches to have the resources to con
tinue to recruit, to continue to oper
ate their program successfully, we’re
going to have to have a major rev
enue strength and that is the signifi
cance of the expansion. We’ll be able
to realize between four to six million
dollars a year in revenue that can be
a direct benefit to our other sports as
well as the institution as a whole.
Q: It’s no secret that the expan
sion has already been delayed a
year, and a big topic on campus last
year was Nike CEO and Oregon
alum Phil Knight's decision to with
draw his $30 million toward that
expansion. What’s been the
progress, if any, of the relationship
between Oregon and Knight?
A: It has occupied a lot of time
and energy and I really think there
has been progress. Phil Knight is a
supporter of the U of O, has a pas
sion for his alma mater and wants to
be involved. He just feels very
strongly about the issues at stake.
President Frohnmayer continues to
work hard on this matter and I feel
we’re making progress in regards to
the relationship that we have with
the school’s largest benefactor.
Ideally, we’d like to have Phil back,
and a primary goal of mine is to just
get him back here as a fan and let
everything fall where it may. But at the
same time, we need to explore alter
nate ways to fund the Autzen Stadium
project, which is what we’re doing
now. That’s how critical I think it is
that we go forward with this. I would
love for Phil to be a part of this and en
joy it all, but we can’t delay this any
further. It’s that critical to our future.
Q: Obviously, this topic has divid
ed the campus in half. What mes
sage would you send to the student
body?
A: I urge the students to study the
issue. I know that many people, my
self included, know a whole lot
more about such things as the WRC
(Worker Rights Consortium) and the
FLA (Free Labor Association) than
they did a few months ago, and I
think that’s good. It’s brought aware
ness to the campus. This university
is about students, it’s about faculty,
it’s about community and it’s about
freedom of expression. To commu
nicate and express feelings is very
important, and if nothing else comes
out of this all, at least the awareness
and the lessons that we can learn
from studying these issues will have
benefited everyone in the Universi
ty
Q: Probably the biggest story of
this past summer was Notre Dame’s
highly publicized pursuit of Oregon
basketball coach Ernie Kent. What
does it mean to Oregon to have Kent
turn down an offer at a major uni
versity to remain a Duck?
A: Ernie Kent is an outstanding
basketball coach and a wonderful
person and I’ll always take it as a
compliment when other schools
look at our coaches. But at the same
time, 1 think we’ve moved into a po
sition now where we can realistical
ly say that we are destination and
not a steppingstone. We are able to
attract people from quote-unquote
marquee programs.
So when Ernie looked at that
Notre Dame opportunity and com
pared it with the one that he had, he
felt that this here was a better job.
Ernie’s plan for Oregon basketball is
far from over. He sells Oregon with a
sincere passion for a university, a
community, Mac Court and that’s all
contagious. We’re far from seeing
what the end result to Ernie’s plan
will be, but it’s going to be very
pleasing when we get there.
Q: You look at this UO sports sea
son, you have a strong fall, a busy
winter and then a spring where
Oregon gets to host the 2001 NCAA
Track Championships. That’s got to
be pretty exciting as an athletic de
partment to embark on such an ac
tive year.
A: We certainly have a lot of op
portunities to bring positive expo
sure to the university and its sur
rounding community. Last year
could arguably be one of the very
best athletic years in the history of
this school, and I'm excited to see
how we respond this year, f always
get excited when the school year
starts. It’s great to see our student
athletes back. They’re all in terrific
shape and looking good and very fo
cused on the tasks at hand.
We’ve got a tremendous amount
of respect from people around the
country and that’s taken a lot of ef
fort by a lot of people. We cherish
that and want to work very hard to
retain such a reputation. A lot of
eyes are going to be on us and that’s
a fun position to be in.
siiiii iiiiii iiim hi*"
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