Phil Knight is so hard to score, even The Oprah Winfrey Show staff ran into roadblocks.
Telling her audience, that he is “notoriously media shy” and that it took her team “a lot of convincing” to get him to appear, Winfrey took Knight on an excursion the Portland Business Journal‘s Erik Siemers called “…a high-level primer on Nike trivia followed by an episode of ‘This is Your Life’…”
Knight discussed a variety of topics, both personal and professional, including launching the company with University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman, selling the shoes they manufactured out of his car and the people responsible for the company’s name and famous ‘Swoosh’ logo.
Later, Winfrey surprised Knight with taped greetings from U.S. soccer queen Mia Hamm, Charles Barkley (who called the “I am not a role model” ad “the most significant thing I think I’ve ever done in my life”) and skier Picabo Street.
Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong then made an unexpected appearance on stage, where he talked about the company standing behind him despite doping allegations and the yellow LiveStrong wristband campaign. Despite early doubts, 80 million bands have been sold and $93 million has been raised for cancer awareness.
Finally, as Allan Brettman of The Oregonian explained, Knight may not have brought cars for the studio audience, but he did give each of the 400 people a customized pair of LunarGlide 2 running shoes featuring Oprah’s name on the tongue and a Nike+ SportWatch GPS.
Copyright 2011 USATODAY.com
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