Knight In The 1970's Blue Ribbon Sports

Philip Hampson Knight was born and raised in Oregon and was able to attend the University of Oregon and graduate in 1959 with a degree in journalism. Knight also earned his MBA from Stanford in 1962. During Knight’s time at the University of Oregon he was a member of the track team. After he graduated and entered the workforce he realized that he had a passion for something he had never thought about as a career. Knight wanted to be an entrepreneur and he dove into his dream by flying to Japan to meet with a shoe manufacturer. When he met with the manufacturers he introduced himself as the head of Blue Ribbon Sports, which was a company that he made up on the spot, this started Knight’s career as an entrepreneur. Knight partnered with his track coach from the University of Oregon, Bill Bowerman and began selling shoes at track meets as Blue Ribbon Sports.
In 1972 Knight created Nike and paid a college student $35 to design a logo for his new company. Nike became increasingly popular and was at the top of the sneaker game in 1990 when many forms of controversy and some questions of Knights character arose. Nike was able to get through the controversy and remain at the top of athletic footwear and Phil Knight was named the “most powerful” person in sports in 1993. The controversy continued to attract itself to Nike and as the founder and CEO many scrutinized the way Knight handled himself and the company in those situations. Phil Knight is one of the most successful self made billionaires in history but many dispute whether or not he is one of the best business leaders of a