With a net worth of $5.3 billion, Knight ranks sixth on Forbes's latest list of the richest Americans.

He has made more money from athletics than anyone, ever. A former middle-distance runner at the University of Oregon (he ran a respectable 4:10 mile), Knight, MBA '62, has been on a 30-year endorphin rush. Of course, you'd expect nothing less from the man who turned a tiny company called Blue Ribbon Sports into Nike Corp., a multibillion-dollar enterprise and a household name. It was pure Philip Hampson Knight: innovative, controversial and very, very successful. The press savaged the ads for posing Woods as a racial trailblazer, a path long since pioneered by black golfers such as Charlie Sifford and Lee Elder.īut the world's largest athletic shoe and apparel company had triumphed again, creating a buzz for its masterful orchestration of Woods's coming-out party and raising hackles with its questionable use of race to promote him. The company is packaging the young golfer-who is part African American, part Chinese, part American Indian, part Thai and part white-as the Jackie Robinson of golf, breaking down barriers each time he steps on a course. Nike signed Woods to a five-year endorsement deal, reportedly worth more than $40 million, and has thrown its considerable weight behind him. Woods may be the company's current star, but its controversial CEO and founder is the real story. The Nike-crafted tag line on the ads? 'Hello, World.' In a barrage of new TV spots and full-page newspaper ads, Nike unveiled its latest pitchman: pro golfer Tiger Woods. Then, just 24 hours later, the other shoe dropped.

'Well,' he said with a big grin, 'I guess it's 'Hello, world,' huh?'Īn adoring sports media lapped up the young man's winning soundbite. 'If not, I hope he goes to medical school.' Three days later, Woods called a news conference, stepped before the TV cameras and announced that he was quitting college to join the Professional Golf Association Tour. 'I hope we sign him,' Knight said at the time. Amateur title last summer, Nike founder Phil Knight shadowed him from hole to hole, appraising the young phenom's every smile the way a golf coach would his swing. As 20-year-old Stanford golfer Tiger Woods fought his way to an unprecedented third U.S.

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