When the University of Oregon Ducks basketball team squares off Jan. 13 against the USC Trojans, you can bet a fair amount of attention will be devoted to the floor in the $200 million Matthew Knight Arena. Oregon recently unveiled Kilkenny Floor, and the sporting industry has been abuzz over its bold graphics that represent a view from beneath a forest of fir trees.
"We wanted to design the most iconic television presence possible for the University of Oregon by conjuring up a highly unique and visible basketball floor design," Tinker Hatfield, vice president for design and special projects for Nike, said in a statement issued by the university. "It's inspired by our beautiful tree-covered region and the UO 1939 NCAA Championship basketball team nicknamed the 'Tall Firs.'" Hatfield told GoDucksTV, the design could "throw off" opposing teams the first time they play on it.
Connor Sports Flooring (Amasa, Mich.) manufactured the Quicklock Portable Floor pieces, which were milled from FSC-certified northern hard maple that was donated by Gonyea Family/Timber Products Co. of Eugene/Springfield, Ore.; the raw material was sourced from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The total project is 6,944 sq. ft. United Services (Idaho Falls, Idaho) did the graphical work, which took 2,500 man-hours to complete, according to the university. More stencil material was used on this floor than has been used for the other 30 floors Connor Sports Flooring completed this year.
