Oregon planning complex named after Mariota

The University of Oregon is planning a state-of-the-art sports science and performance complex to be named after its first Heisman Trophy winner, Marcus Mariota, the school announced.

If approved by the school’s Board of Trustees, the proposed schedule says construction would begin on the Marcus Mariota Sports Performance Complex in January and be planned and financed entirely by a gift from Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny.

The cost was not listed but would be above $5 million, according to documents. Completion would be targeted for Sept. 16, 2016.

"Marcus is the epitome of a student-athlete, and the Marcus Mariota Sports Performance Complex will be an outstanding tribute to his legacy," UO athletic director Rob Mullens said in a statement on the Ducks’ website.

Mariota, a Saint Louis School alum, graduated from Oregon in December with a degree in General Sciences and was taken by the Tennessee Titans second overall in the 2015 NFL Draft.

The project would involve renovation of a 29,000-square-foot area, according to documents. The school said equipment in the facility would include "3D motion capture technology, to replace the subjective ‘functional movement screen’ that Oregon and other athletic departments use to measure things such as range of motion and identify possible inefficiencies." A neurocognitive center would help in part to diagnose and treat concussion symptoms, the school said.

UO director of athletic medicine Dr. Greg Skaggs, who joined two of the fact-finding trips, one that took him to NASA, as well as several sports science institutes in the United States and Australia, said, "The facility is really based on trying to objectively measure things we currently measure subjectively, as well as provide resources we currently don’t have that we know are important for recovery."