Kenny Moore Creative Writing Fellowship Endowment Fund 

Jogging through the forest is pleasant, as is relaxing by the fire with a glass of gentle Bordeaux and discussing one’s travels. Racing is another matter. The frontrunner’s mind is filled with an anguished fearfulness, a panic, which drives into pain. – Kenny Moore

Kenny was special to all of us. We knew him as an athlete, a writer, a thinker, and humanitarian. As people to whom he seemed like family, we write to ask you to consider joining us in honoring him with a gift to the Kenny Moore Creative Writing Fellowship Endowment Fund at the University of Oregon.

He was a three-time All-American runner at Oregon and a member of the University’s Hall of Fame. Kenny was the 1967 USA Cross Country champion, and as a two-time Olympic marathoner he finished 14th in Mexico City in 1968 and fourth in the 1972 Munich games. 

After graduating from Oregon in 1966 with a degree in philosophy, Kenny was awarded an NCAA post- graduate scholarship and entered Stanford’s law school. Near the end of his first year, he was curious why he, one confident in his writing ability, didn’t receive a better grade on a paper. His professor told him that he could have done additional research, tightened his reasoning and on and on. Kenny protested that the short assignment didn’t call for all that. The professor launched into a canned speech about how if he wanted to be a lawyer, he needed to dedicate himself and not let anything stand in the way. Kenny walked out thinking the professor was right and nothing was going to stand in the way of his running and his writing. He left Stanford.

Returning to Eugene, Kenny enrolled in the Creative Writing program at the U of O. He received his Masters in Fine Arts in 1972 and his career as a journalist, screenwriter, actor and author was launched. 

Sports Illustrated was, many think, in its golden age when Kenny began a 25-year career with the magazine. It often featured longer literary pieces, a perfect home for Kenny’s profiles of people in sport. Kenny, gentle by nature, saw others through a humane lens. He wrote beautifully and insightfully about people, not just their accomplishments. 

Screenwriting later found Kenny and he worked with celebrated writer Robert Towne on several projects, even somehow allowing himself to be cast in a couple of films. He co-wrote, with Towne, “Without Limits”, the movie about Steve Prefontaine’s life. But his seminal work was ahead of him. 

Kenny had a handful of mentors. On the wall of his study were photos of a number of them. None more important than the man who helped form him as an athlete and a person, his college coach Bill Bowerman. Lessons Kenny learned were often wrapped in a Bowerman story. It was very important to him that the story of this remarkable man be written. Bowerman and the Men of Oregon is not just about the man but an important history of the state, the university and track and field. 

Kenny became ill a number of years ago and was progressively limited. He had difficulty honoring the pledge he made to himself when he walked out of Stanford’s law school that nothing would get in the way of his running and writing, but his belief in the good of others, as did his optimism in the face of inevitability, never wavered. He passed away May 4, 2022. 

The University of Oregon Creative Writing Program is one of the elite and most selective programs in the country. Each year 10 students are selected from over 600 applicants for the two-year masters level program. Kenny was a long-time generous supporter of the program. 

The Kenny Moore Creative Writing Fellowship Endowment Fund has been established through the University of Oregon Foundation to provide financial assistance to the program’s students. It has been seeded with contributions of more than $100,000 with the goal of raising $1.5 million to create an endowment for the ongoing support of the program.

Kenny enriched the lives of countless people. It seems most fitting to remember him through the university and the program he loved. 

Thank you. Jon Anderson, Terri Anderson, Kip Leonard and Jody Miller kennymooreendowment@gmail.com

Please consider honoring Kenny by providing educational support in perpetuity for creative writing MFA students by making a gift to the Kenny Moore Creative Writing Endowment Fund. You can make a gift on-line or send in a completed giving form with a check to: University of Oregon Foundation – Gift Services 1720 E. 13th Avenue, Suite 410 Eugene, OR 97403-2253 

If you have questions about this fund or would like to discuss other ways to make a gift such as wire transfer, gifts of stocks or other securities, a pledge, or to include a gift in your estate; please contact Renee Gordon, Executive Director of Development, rsgordon@uoregon.edu or call (541)-359-6870.