Phil Knight sold shoes from his car trunk in 1964 to help start Nike; 61 years later, he and his wife gave $2 billion to a cancer institute
Phil Knight sold shoes from his car trunk in 1964 to help start Nike; 61 years later, he and his wife gave $2 billion to a cancer institute
Nina DerwinSat, October 24, 2026 at 2:12 AM UTC
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(Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
In 1964, Phil Knight was a young entrepreneur selling imported running shoes from the trunk of his car at track meets.
The burgeoning mogul had no way of knowing that his fledgling business would eventually become Nike, one of the world’s most recognizable brands, or that the fortune it created would one day help fund a historic investment in cancer research.
Sixty-one years later, Knight and his wife, Penny Knight, announced a $2 billion charitable commitment to the Oregon Health & Science University’s Knight Cancer Institute, marking an extraordinary new chapter in the couple’s philanthropic efforts.
The journey began with a simple idea.
While studying at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Knight had become convinced that affordable, high-quality Japanese running shoes could compete with the German brands dominating the American market. He eventually traveled to Japan, where he arranged to distribute shoes made by Onitsuka, the company behind what would later become ASICS.
In 1964, Knight joined forces with his former University of Oregon track coach, Bill Bowerman, to establish Blue Ribbon Sports. With limited resources and no traditional storefront, Knight began selling shoes directly to runners, often working out of the trunk of his car at track meets around the Pacific Northwest.
“The shoe is the one piece of equipment that really matters to a runner,” Knight told Harvard Business Review in 2017. “There’s no ball involved, there’s no racket, there’s no helmet. Bowerman was obsessed with it, that he believed, you know, an ounce in a pair of shoes was the same as a thousand pounds in the last five yards of a 1,500 meter [race]. So, he was obsessed with it and it got me quite interested in it.”
The business gradually grew beyond its humble beginnings. By the early 1970s, Blue Ribbon Sports had begun developing its own footwear, adopting the Nike name and the now-famous Swoosh logo.
“When we changed from Tiger to Nike, we had to have a design for the shoe,” Knight said in a 2016 interview. “And where do you go to? There’s no ‘dial 9-1-1’ for design. So I basically introduced myself to a graphic arts student at Portland State when I was teaching there. […] She was paid $2 an hour – which seemed to be the going rate for a struggling art student at Portland State – which amounted to $35 at the time. When we went public, we gave her 500 shares of stock which she has held onto to this day. It’s worth about a million dollars.”
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What started with imported sneakers eventually became a global athletic footwear and apparel empire, with Knight serving as one of its driving forces for decades.
But Knight’s ambitions extended beyond business.
In 2008, the Knights donated $100 million to OHSU’s cancer institute, which was subsequently named in their honor. Five years later, they pledged another $500 million on the condition that the university raise a matching amount. The challenge succeeded, generating $1 billion to advance cancer research.
Their latest commitment, announced in August 2025, was even more ambitious.
The $2 billion gift, the largest single donation ever announced to a U.S. university, college, or academic health center, was intended to transform cancer care by bringing research, innovative treatments, clinical trials, and patient support services closer together.
The initiative builds on the work of Dr. Brian Druker, a pioneering cancer researcher who helped develop the leukemia treatment Gleevec.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to invest in the next stage of the Druker-led revolutionary vision of cancer research, diagnosis, treatment, care, and some day, eradication,” Phil and Penny Knight said in a statement in 2025. “We couldn’t be more excited about the transformational potential of this work for humanity.”
For Knight, the announcement marked another extraordinary milestone in a career defined by unlikely beginnings. A young runner who once sold shoes from his car had helped build a worldwide business and, alongside his wife, committed billions toward changing the future of cancer treatment.
Related: In 2003, Robin Williams built a mansion on his 640-acre Napa estate and named its vineyard Pym-Rae; sold for $18.1 million in 2016, Pym-Rae still makes wine today
This story was originally published by Parade on Oct 24, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Money”
