Gift is the Knights’ third major Oregon-focused commitment in 14 months

Phil Knight, chair and cofounder of Nike Inc, and his wife, Penny, announced a $1bn donation to the University of Oregon on Wednesday, earmarked for a new engineering school in Eugene. The gift is believed to be the largest known donation to a flagship university, according to the Guardian, which reported the development alongside local Oregon outlets and the New York Times.

University of Oregon president Karl Scholz confirmed the donation in a statement to the Oregon outlet LookOut Eugene-Springfield on Wednesday morning. He said the Knights have “a long history of believing in things before they exist” and that “they did it in 2016, and they are doing it again now, at a scale that is genuinely hard to take in. I am grateful to them, and I am grateful to be here for it.”

In a separate announcement, Phil Knight said: “to make an audacious dream a reality requires more than a vivid imagination. It also requires the sort of opportunity that our great American universities, both public and private, have historically provided. This is no time to abandon them.” Knight added that “Penny and I are grateful for the chance to invest in our most promising young people’s future in this important way.”

Knight, 88, is a graduate of the university. The latest gift brings the Knight family’s known total giving to the university to more than $2bn, according to the New York Times.

In an interview with the New York Times about the donation, Scholz said: “one of the most successful businesspeople in the history of humanity, and one of the most generous philanthropists in the history of humanity, has said higher education is worth an investment of this magnitude. At a time when we’re all feeling a little bit under siege, this is tremendous news.” He characterized the gift as “a screaming endorsement of the importance of what we’re doing.”

The University of Oregon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.

Bob Guldberg, the university’s vice-president and a professor of bioengineering, told the New York Times that the $1bn donation will allow the university to establish a full undergraduate engineering program that could help address a shortage of engineers in the state.

The University of Oregon gift is the Knights’ third major Oregon-focused commitment in roughly 14 months. Earlier this month, the couple announced a $1.1bn commitment to Providence St Vincent Medical Center and the Providence Heart Institute to create Oregon’s first hospital dedicated exclusively to women’s health.

In a statement at the time, Phil Knight said: “Penny and I have always believed that real breakthroughs come from people willing to take on the toughest challenges. Providence has shown that kind of ambition in cardiovascular care, and we see the same opportunity to do something truly distinctive for women’s health. We’re proud to invest in teams that will change what’s possible for communities across Oregon and beyond.”

Last year, Oregon Health & Science University announced it had received a $2bn commitment from the Knights to its cancer institute, which the university said would “transform the future of cancer care and set a new standard globally.”

The University of Oregon, the state’s flagship university, is located in Eugene, the same community Knight attended.