“Living the Dream” – Calvin Kenney has a contagious enthusiasm for his work as the University of Oregon Football Operations Facility Manager at the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex.

Katie Pietzold, Oregon News

EUGENE, Ore. – “Today is a catch-up day,” Calvin Kenney says while he quickly checks his phone and then places it back on his hip alongside his walky-talky and dangling ID badge. As he strolls through the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex (HDC), located off of Leo Harris Parkway, he picks up litter left on the ground floor and works his way through the building. Entering the players’ lounge on the sixth floor he finds an empty Gatorade bottle and tosses it in the trash. Kenney is the University of Oregon Football Operations Facility Manager. He says his job never ends.

Kenney is on call 24/7, every day of the year. He says, “I make my own schedule as long as my work gets done. But roughly, it’s from about six in the morning to about 3:30 / four o’clock in the afternoon Monday through Friday.”

Even on his most recent vacation, he says he was answering phone calls, responding to emails, and adding to his to-do list, which is why he has much to catch up. He says, “My job responsibility encompasses the whole maintenance and operation of the building. So, I have to look at not only getting the building clean but what time the lights come on, the heat comes on or off, the utilities usage. I’m pretty aggressive with the preventive maintenance service, how we service equipment and when so we don’t disrupt the building occupancy’s work.”

After working for the City of Eugene as a facility manager for ten years, Kenney came to work for the University of Oregon in January 2013. He says he stumbled upon the job listing for the UO when he was posting a building maintenance worker position online for the City: “I read it twice, and said, ‘that’s a really good job’.”

So he sent in his application, went through two phone interviews, a five and a half-hour interview, and another one and a half-hour follow-up interview. After the extensive process, he says, “I was lucky enough to be offered the job.”

While it has its challenges, he says, “It’s a fun job.” – “It’s all Oregon football. You can’t get any better than living in Oregon and working for Oregon football.”

Kenney was at the HDC during its construction and helped oversee the project during its final stages. Because of this, his name can be found on one of the trash bins in the facility with a drawing of a man throwing away garbage.  Several people involved with the construction were given this honor to recognize their part in the construction process of the HDC. However, this isn’t necessarily Kenney’s favorite aspect of the building.

Kenney says it changes daily. “One day of the week it will be the ring room, and then maybe the video wall or the flying ducks up on the six floor – the players’ lounge is always really cool.” Sometimes it’s even the engineering aspects of the building that interest him the most because of the way they cool and heat it. He laughs that it changes a lot and says, “But what’s the favorite today? Today it’s the music.”

“I live the dream each and every day.”