By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com
During the 2020-21 season, the partnership between the UI's Division of Intercollegiate Athletics and NIKE, Inc. marks its silver anniversary. It's a healthy "marriage", the two parties say, and one they expect to last well beyond the 25 years they'll celebrate this year.
"We're really proud of our long-standing relationship with Nike," said Josh Whitman, UI's Director of Athletics. "There's been a lot of symmetry between both organizations. It's really been an uplifting relationship for us through the years."
Kit Morris, Nike's Director of College Sports Marketing, shares Whitman's sentiments.
"It's easy to think of the relationship between Nike and Illinois in some ways as transactional, as a business deal," Morris said, "but that is probably the least of it. This has been something that has been relationship driven. It's been a labor of love for us."
A look at Red Grange's cleats from 1925 versus current Nike Illinois running back cleats
Though the original deal wasn't officially finalized until several months later, the collaboration between Illini and Nike initially began in 1995 with then-director Ron Guenther and his assistants, Bill Yonan and Warren Hood.
Hood, UI's current Deputy Director of Athletics, recalled the details of those early meetings a quarter of a century ago.
"Ron hired Bill Yonan out of retirement from Time-Life (in New York City) to put together our corporate sponsorship program," he said. "Bill called Rudy Chapa and Steve Miller at Nike and asked how we could begin doing business."
In the 1990s, the DIA, its coaches and the equipment staff dealt with a plethora of different companies, according to then equipment manager Andy Dixon. When he first joined Marion Brownfield's crew as an assistant in 1981, Dixon said that Illini teams inventoried a wide variety of different brands on their shelves. There were Asics shoes for some, Pumas and adidas for others, Converse for yet another.
"During the Mike White (football) era, the Illini uniform apparel was Russell but the shoes were from adidas," he recalled. "Most of the players wore adidas, but a few wanted to wear Nike. They were asked not to, but they did anyway. So every Monday morning, ol' Andy got a phone call from the athletic director's office."
Finally, then A.D. Neale Stoner swung a deal for the football and basketball teams to exclusively wear Converse shoes. That continued through the balance of White's time at Illinois, through all of the John Mackovic era, and for a tiny portion of Lou Tepper's stint as head coach.
"One of Lou's best friends was George Balanis from Nike," Dixon said. "Their relationship dated back to when they were both coaches at William & Mary. As soon as Lou took over from Coach Mack, George called Lou and said 'We've got to get you in Nike stuff.'
So, in the Spring of 1992, Nike made its pitch and the Illini football team began using football shoes featuring the famous "swoosh" logo for the '92 season. They continued to wear Champion uniforms through the 1994 season.
On May 31, 1995, following weeks of negotiations, the Chicago Tribune announced that Illinois and Nike had agreed in principle to a multimillion-dollar deal that covered the entire Illini sports program, placing the school among about a dozen universities—including Michigan, Florida State, Southern California and Penn State—that had struck such far-reaching arrangements.
One of the first Nike jerseys worn by Illinois football.Â
That particular date nearly parallels the time when current Head Athletics Equipment Manager Rick Raven first joined Dixon's staff: Aug. 7, 1995. This year marks Raven's 25th season of employment with the DIA.
"Honestly, I don't know any other apparel vendor other than Nike," Raven said. "One of my first big-boy jobs as a 23-year-old, bright-eyed Illinois State University graduate was to take the Champion 'C's' off the women's basketball uniforms and replace them with (Nike) swooshes. I got a crash course from Johnny B (Birdsell) on how to operate a sewing machine. We jumped into the deep end and got right to it."
Finally, on Dec. 12, 1996, a 10-year contract—retroactive to July 1, 1995—was signed by the University and Nike officials. First-year terms called for cash compensation of $100,000 and a cache of free product—shoes, socks, game uniforms, and other apparel—for each of the 17 varsity programs and the cheerleaders. Cash benefits increased to $450,000 by year 10.
It gave Nike the exclusive right to sell authentic Fighting Illini apparel and to market itself as the school's exclusive supplier.
"It was a pretty big moment for the department," Hood said.
A second 10-year deal was signed in October of 2005, raising cash considerations for the DIA to approximately $1.2 million (plus product).
Marty Kaufmann, Senior Associate Director of Athletics for External Relations, was the primary negotiator for a third 10-year contract that was signed with Nike in December of 2015. The latest deal swapped cash considerations entirely for product, ranging from $4 million worth of shoes, apparel and equipment the first year to nearly $5 million when it expires following the 2025-26 season.
"In this contract, virtually everything was poured into product and we rarely spend anything now," Kaufmann said. "From a dollar-for-dollar comparison, we get much more now than we used to."
However, the intrinsic value of being associated with the Nike brand is much greater than the actual compensation.
"Our coaches feel that our association with Nike helps them tremendously with recruiting," Kaufmann said. "They love being partnered with the industry leader. Because of Nike's loyalty to us and our loyalty to them, we are able to fund everything in terms of apparel and footwear needs."
NEXT IN THIS SERIES: Nike's Kit Morris shares tidbits about the company's history, how the company's famed "swoosh" came about, and its dealings with an Illini legend more than two decades before its official association with the University of Illinois.
