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21
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11,2003
ATHLETICS DIRECTOR
New Perkins on campus
Zach Straus/Kansan
Lew Perkins fields questions at a press conference to announce his hiring by the University of Kansas. At the conference, held yesterday, Perkins expressed his firm commitment to the University and to its student athletes.
Athletics director decision pleases University officials, eases departmental woes
By Kevin Flaherty
kflaherty@kansan.com
Kansan writer
Attendees of the press conference yesterday were all smiles as Chancellor Robert Hemenway named Lew Perkins as the 13th athletics director in the University of Kansas' history.
Perkins, 58, the former athletics director at the University of Connecticut, kept everyone at ease with constant joking, even venturing to kiss the hand of Lawrence Journal-World sports editor Chuck Woodling because Woodling was older than he was.
Perkins' personality and comedy are some of the things Bill Self, Kansas basketball coach, liked about the hire.
"I think what you see is what you get. I think he's a guy who has a sense of humor, who will joke with you, who wants to have fun," Self said. "But at the same time, I think there is a serious message behind what he's saying: We won't tolerate anything but everybody's best."
Self said Kansas now had a director that the alumni base could look at and say, "we hit a home run."
One of Perkins' accolades before coming to Kansas was his success in the area of women's sports. At Connecticut, he added three women's sports: lacrosse, rowing and ice hockey. The Huskies basketball team also thrived under his tenure, winning four national championships in his 13 years there.
His commitment to women's basketball was a positive in Kansas women's basketball coach Marian Washington's mind.
"He has done a great job of elevating women's athletics at the University of Connecticut," Washington said. "I've thought for a long time that women's basketball and women's volleyball were two sports that could generate revenue, but you need to have someone in your leadership who believes in that too."
The Connecticut women's basketball team served as another revenue sport besides men's basketball and football, eventually generating television contract money.
The football team will play in a new $90 million stadium because of Perkins' persuasiveness. Despite the fact that most people opposed the deal, the Connecticut legislature approved the new stadium plans.
"Chancellor Hemenway said he was going to get the best athletics director in America to come here, and I think he achieved that goal." Mangino said. "Our entire athletic department needs a lot of
Mark Mangino, Kansas football coach, said Perkins' success of elevating the Huskies football team to Division I-A and building the stadium made him a good hire.
attention, but I'm pleased with his approach on football and its role in a Big 12 institution."
Drue Jennings, former interim athletics director, said Perkins would give the department stability.
"This department has not had a plan in at least three to four years maybe longer, and if they do they are buried someplace where no one can find them," Jennings said.
We could raise more money from donors if we could lay a vision in front of the public of where we were going, what we were going to do and where we wanted to be, he said. Perkins can do that.
"Lew Perkins can say 'We want to be champions,'" he said.
— Edited by Annie Bernethy
ATHLETICS DIRECTOR
Jennings leaves KU, returns to family, quiet
By Saju Ng'alla
sngalla@kansan.com
Kansan staff reporter
The University of Kansas' announcement of Lew Perkins as the new athletics director yesterday gave Drue Jennings a sigh of relief.
As interim athletics director, Jennings was responsible for hiring a new head basketball coach. In addition, Jennings helped raise enough money to cover the athletics department's expenses during the past few months' transitions.
Looking back, Jennings said he would have never taken the job if he knew he would have had to hire a head basketball coach.
"I would have thought it was not fair to the University and to myself to throw me, as a brand new greenhorn, into the business of hiring a new basketball coach to a school with a 105-year basketball tradition," Jennings said.
Jennings was a significant player in the hiring of Bill Self, the new head basketball coach for Kansas. He, along with Chancellor Robert Hemenway, was also responsible for hiring Perkins as the new athletics director.
Having done that much in as little as three months has prompted many to wonder why Jennings should not have been offered the job permanently.
Jennings said he would have never considered such a proposal.
"I want more control of my life and my calendar," he said.
Now retired from Kansas City Power & Light, where he served as CEO for 14 years, Jennings said he did not want to go back to working 70-hour weeks. However, since taking on the duties of being an athletics director, Jennings found himself going home at 10 p.m. and waking up at
SEE JENNINGS ON PAGE 23