-
Phil Knight, the co-founder of NIKE is born in Oregon.
-
In 1959, Phil Knight graduated from The University of Oregon and obtained a Journalism degree. He had also earned mulitple varsity letters from his career as a middle-distance track runner, completing his best mile time at 4:10.
-
After graduation, Phil Knight served 1 year of active duty in the Army with an additional 7 years in the Army Reserve. After his 1 year of active duty, Knight enrolled in Stanford Graduate School of Business.
-
In 1962, Knight graduated from Stanford Graduate School of Business with a Masters Degree in Business Administration. He realized in his first small business course that he was destined to become an entreprenuer.
-
After graduation, Knight took a trip around the world in November of 1962 to Kobe, Japan. Here he discovered the Tiger-brand running shoes. Knight was amazed by the low cost and high quality. He scheduled a meeting with the company's CEO and secured rights to distribute the shoes in America.
-
Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman agreed to form a partnership creating Blue Ribbon Sports shortly after they had recieved their first order of Tiger Running Shoes. Blue Ribbon Sports was the precursor to NIKE.
-
The NIKE swoosh was created by Carolyn Davidson for only $35. The new name was suggested by Jeff Johnson, a friend of Phil Knight.
-
NIKE goes public in 1980 and the creator of the NIKE Swoosh is given an undisclosed amount of shares of stock in the company.
-
Knight resigned as CEO on Nov. 18th 2004 and passed the title to William Perez, former CEO of S.C. Johnson & Son. Perez was then replaced by Mark Parker in 2006.
-
By 2011, Knights stake in NIKE gave him an estimated net worth of $13.1 Billion. This made him the 66th richest man in the world, and the 22nd richest in America.
