UO E-clips, Feb. 29

Oregon AD, wife donate $1 million to university (The Oregonian): Pat Kilkenny, the University of Oregon's athletic director, and his wife, Stephanie, are donating $1 million to the university for academic programs that support sports research and education, President Dave Frohnmayer announced Thursday. The money will pay for a new business and communication training program for university athletic leaders; a new "Competition Not Conflict" program that promotes sports as way of resolving disputes; scholarships for low-income students; and library improvements.

Athletic$ and academic$ at UO (Willamette Week): Don't you feel all warm and fuzzy knowing that days after getting the Legislature's sign-off on a $200 million arena deal for a basketball team usually more middling than mighty, that University of Oregon Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny and his wife, Stephanie, ponied up $1 million today for academics in Ducks-ville? UO President Dave Frohnmayer is quoted as saying that the couple's $1 million will help to "unite academics and athletics at the University of Oregon." Yes, it's rare -- and welcome -- that an AD donates $1 million for the greater good.

UO athletic director gives $1 million to academic programs (Associated Press): University of Oregon Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny and his wife, Stephanie, are giving the school $1 million for academics. University President Dave Frohnmayer says another $500,000 goes to academics this year and next because Kilkenny draws no salary. The $1 million is the first major contribution to academics from the longtime athletics donor. Half will establish an education and research initiative on athletics, including training for athletic directors. More will support a program to promote sports as a healthy alternative to conflict and a vehicle to teach dispute resolution. It also will support scholarships and UO libraries.

Gift of $1 million goes to UO academics (Register-Guard): Score one for the classroom. University of Oregon Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny and his wife, Stephanie -- longtime UO athletic donors -- announced Thursday that they will contribute $1 million to help university academics. The gift is the first nonathletic donation ever offered to the UO by the couple, who gave $6 million to university sports programs before the UO hired Kilkenny a year ago to lead the athletic department. “We’re working hard to show that academics and athletics can be mutually beneficial,” Kilkenny said during a news conference attended by UO President Dave Frohnmayer and several faculty members.

Our evolving bodies (Eugene Weekly): UO biologist Joe Thornton has received the U.S. government's highest honor for early career scientists. He has long been interested in understanding the effects of pollutants on the human body, but some of his recent research also answers one of the most common arguments against evolution, he says. Thornton, associate professor of biology at the UO's Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, studies how the receptors for steroid hormones, such as estrogen and testosterone, evolved their specific functions. He received a five-year, $911,000 Faculty Early Career Development Program grant from the National Science Foundation for this research, and the NSF nominated some of the people who won these grants to receive the 2006 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

‘Bowerman’ author visits alma mater (Register-Guard): For his final appearance in the month-long Readin’ in the Rain series, author Kenny Moore returned to his alma mater, the place where he learned to apply tenacity to the sport that would dominate his life. And North Eugene High School welcomed him back as a celebrity son. During a two-hour visit Thursday morning, Moore, a 1962 graduate who attended Howard Elementary and Kelly Middle schools, spoke to about 400 students in the auditorium, including two classes that have been studying his book, “Bowerman and the Men of Oregon,” this year’s Readin’ in the Rain pick.

Love tells of death threats in article (Register-Guard): The treatment of UCLA center Kevin Love and his family at McArthur Court last month continues to provide embarrassing national publicity for the University of Oregon, with the added twist that Love has told Sports Illustrated that he received death threats the day before the game. In an article on “extreme vulgarity” and taunting by college basketball fans in arenas this season, Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl led with the Oregon-UCLA game of Jan. 24, which ultimately resulted in apologies by Oregon director of athletics Pat Kilkenny to the Love family and to UCLA.