Major Oregon Awards for Duck Alumni

[Charles Fischer]

(Press Release from UO Athletics)

 

EUGENE, Ore. – Student-athletes from the football and volleyball teams when the UO Athletic Department was just beginning its current rise to national prominence, as well as a long-time staff member who began her tenure at Oregon around the same time, have been selected to receive the University of Oregon athletic department’s annual awards, athletic director Rob Mullens announced Tuesday.

 

Football player Josh Frankel has been named the recipient of the 2021 Leo Harris Award. Volleyball’s Michelle “Shellie” Nisle has been tabbed for the 2021 Becky L. Sisley Award. Current UO athletic department staff member Beth Campbell has been named the 2021 Order of the O honoree.

 

The 2021 Leo Harris, Becky Sisley and Order of the O awards ceremony will be determined at a later date.

 

Leo Harris Award

The Alumni Athletic Award was originated in 1967 by the late Leo Harris, former UO director of athletics, and his family and was later renamed the Leo Harris Award in his honor. It is presented to an alumni letterman on the basis of at least 20 years of achievement and service since graduation.

 

Josh Frankel may be best remembered as the back-up kicker who came off the bench following an injury to the starter and drilled a triple overtime, game-winning field goal versus USC in 1999. He was a member of four bowl teams as the program began its assent to becoming one of the nation’s top teams.

 

Frankel toiled on the scout team as a walk-on freshman before earning his way up the depth chart. He shared kicking duties over his next two seasons before his clutch field goal versus USC that gave Oregon a 33-30 win in three overtimes. He also made four-of-five field goals against Arizona in 1999 to preserve a 44-41 victory. He was given a scholarship following Oregon’s 24-20 win over Minnesota in the 1999 Sun Bowl.

 

Frankel’s most productive year came as a senior in 2000 where he made 13-of-25 field goals and 37-of-39 extra point attempts. That season, the Pacific Palisades, Calif., native made a career-long 47-yard game-winning field goal in the Ducks’ 27-24 win at Washington State. He also hit five-of-five extra points in Oregon’s 35-30 victory over Texas in the 2000 Holiday Bowl.

 

Frankel finished his career with 150 points on 26-of-41 field goals and 72-of-77 extra points and was an all-Pac-10 honorable mention selection in 1999.

 

He received his degree in journalism the spring of 2000 and then returned to Oregon to earn an MBA in 2006. Frankel has worked in the financial sector since then and is currently an executive vice president at West Bearing Investments, a division of Ferguson Wellman, based in the Portland area.

 

A certified financial planner and portfolio manager, Frankel has individual and institutional clients concentrated in Portland, Vancouver, Eugene, Bend, Medford, Spokane and California. He was hired by Ferguson Wellman in 2013 to launch and grow West Bearing Investments. Since 2013, he has helped grow the company to $315 million in assets under his management.

 

Frankel has also been active in his community and as a UO alumnus. The Duck Athletic Fund and UO Foundation donor is a past chair of the Oregon Club of Portland. He is also a member of the UO Mentor Program for current student-athletes and the UO Alumni Association. Frankel is the current chair of the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation and is also a board member with New Avenues for Youth. In 2020, Frankel was selected for the Wexner Heritage Leadership Program.

 

“The UO holds a very special place in my life,” said Frankel. “My experience as a student-athlete helped prepare me to be a better father, a better husband, a business executive and community leader. I am forever grateful for the UO.”

 

Becky L. Sisley Award

The Becky L. Sisley Award is named after the University’s first director of women’s intercollegiate athletics and is awarded to a former female student-athlete to commemorate community involvement, career development and support of University ideals.

 

Michelle “Shellie” Nisle joined the Oregon volleyball team at a time when the program was struggling to find its feet. Transferring from Iowa State, Nisle played the 1998 and 1999 seasons as a middle blocker for the Ducks.

 

As a senior in 1999, Nisle led the Ducks in total blocks and block assists.

 

Nisle graduated from Oregon in 2001 with a degree in psychology and then studied law at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland.

 

After graduation, Nisle pursued a career in the legal field and served as a deputy prosecuting attorney for 12 years in Washington state, first in Cowlitz County and then in Clark County. She worked in the Domestic Violence Prosecution Unit and as prosecution leader of the Elder Justice Center where she sought convictions of those charged with physically or economically abusing seniors and incapacitated people.

 

Nisle has also been active in the community. She helped represent pro bono a Native American tribe in a matter that was crucial to its cultural center. She is also a past board member of the Humane Society for Southwest Washington.

 

Originally from Orient, Wash., Nisle supports her alma mater as a student-athlete mentor as well as being a member of the Duck Athletic Fund and the UO Foundation. She is also a UO football season ticket holder.

 

Nisle and her husband Ryan live in Vancouver, Wash.

 

Order of the O Award

The Order of the O Honorarium is given annually to an individual who has made a contribution to the University of Oregon Department of Intercollegiate Athletics over an extended period of time, but was not a varsity letterwinner at the UO.

 

Now in her 17^th year with the University of Oregon’s athletic department, Beth Campbell has been selected as the 2021 Order of the O honorary member.

 

After starting at Oregon in the business office and then later working as a program assistant with the Ducks’ lacrosse team, Campbell has been in her current role with the Duck Athletic Fund since the fall of 2004.

 

Her day-to-day responsibilities include supporting donors and season-ticket holders, as well as the UO’s development staff. She serves as the administrative support liaison for the Order of the O board, the Leo Harris Award committee and the Becky L. Sisley Award committee.

 

Campbell, an Oregon native who grew up in Turner, is a graduate of Springfield’s Thurston High School. She spent several years working in the banking sector before securing a position as a receptionist and bookkeeper at Jaqua & Wheatley Law firm. After 13 years with Jaqua & Wheatley, Campbell embarked on a new opportunity with Oregon Athletics and has been involved first hand in Oregon’s growth from a university known mainly for its track and field program to a well-recognized national brand across all sports.

 

Campbell and her husband Harry have three daughters, Laurie, Kristina and Michelle, and two granddaughters.

 

“The bonds that I have developed with our staff and donors are so special and memorable,” said Campbell. “Being an Oregon native, I feel very fortunate to work and interact with such amazing people.”