Prominent Oregon Alumni Launching New Company ‘Division Street’ to Create NIL Opportunities for University of Oregon Athletes

Oregon Donors, Including Phil Knight, Assemble Expert Team to Manage UO Athlete Brands and Partnerships with a Focus on Innovation and Athlete Empowerment

Eugene, Ore. (Sept. 30, 2021) – Several Alumni and prominent Oregon Donors, including Pat Kilkenny, Ed Maletis, Jim Morse, the Papé Family, and NIKE co-founder Phil Knight, announced today the formation of Division Street Associates, LLC, a sport venture that will supercharge name, image, and likeness (NIL) opportunities for University of Oregon athletes. The company seeks to help student-athletes create and monetize their brands in a way that enables them to focus on the two most important parts of their collegiate journey — academics and sport.

Leading the effort for Division Street will be Rosemary St. Clair, former VP and GM of NIKE Women, who will serve as CEO. Rudy Chapa, former VP of Sports Marketing at NIKE, will be Chairman of the Board.

“Division Street has put together an extremely capable group to deal with the fast-changing landscape of NIL,” Knight said. “Led by Rosemary and Rudy, I am confident they will bring innovation and creativity to this new world.”

“Division Street’s founding strength is the Oregon brand itself, which has always been about innovation, audacity and culture,” St. Clair said. “Our goal in this chaotic new world of NIL marketing is to elevate the athlete experience by bringing in leading expertise across brand, marketing, sponsorship, digital and creative to support all University of Oregon student-athletes, inclusive of every sport and across gender.”

Among the elite team working with Division Street will be Adopt, a minority-owned brand and creative company focused on athletes and sport recently co-founded by Klutch Sports Group founder and CEO Rich Paul. Adopt co-founders and former NIKE and Jordan Brand executives Nicole Graham, David Creech and Josh Moore will bring decades of brand, marketing, creative and digital experience to Division Street’s portfolio, and Adopt has enlisted former Oregon wide receiver and Jordan Brand executive Garren Strong to join the squad.

To add athlete firepower to the team, Division Street has partnered with former Oregon superstar Sabrina Ionescu to serve as Chief Athlete Officer for the company. In this role, Ionescu – one of the most decorated athletes in college basketball history and the No. 1 pick of the 2020 WNBA Draft – will serve as a senior adviser to the Division Street team to ensure the voice of the athlete is at the center of all the company’s work, and she will host quarterly seminars with Oregon student-athletes to share her counsel and experiences as a high-profile athlete with a growing portfolio of top-tier partnerships.

“As an athlete navigating the world of brand and partnerships myself, I see a real opportunity to provide today’s college players more professional counsel as they grapple with the new NIL landscape,” Ionescu said. “I’m excited that Division Street also sees that need and is bringing together an all-star team to address this for Oregon. I’m also very passionate about ensuring diversity in gender and sport, and that will be part of my focus in this new role.”

Finally, Division Street is excited to collaborate with the University of Oregon’s world-renowned Warsaw Sports Marketing Center and School of Journalism and Communication, as part of the Sport and Wellness Initiative, and their newly formed Oregon Accelerator, a first-of-its-kind, full-service, student-led marketing and branding collective that will focus on maximizing the name, image and likeness earning potential for the University of Oregon’s 500+ student-athletes.