When Lew Perkins took the job as athletic director at the University of Kansas five years ago, he knew that the school’s history and tradition would be a strength. He learned it also could be a hindrance.
Perkins stepped into an athletic program that had fallen behind the times, lagging in facilities and infrastructure. Basketball, long one of the nation’s elite programs, remained strong. But all else had languished. And even basketball was in danger of slipping if the Jayhawks didn’t find ways to raise the money to upgrade facilities at the pace of other programs that were building state-of-the-art practice facilities.
“As you try to move your athletic program from one generation to the next, you’ve got to have change,” said Perkins, who in 2003 came to Kansas from the University of Connecticut, where he was named AD of the Year in 2000 in part because he modernized that hoops-centric program. “You can’t be stagnant. You’ve got to do things differently. I’m very sensitive to the history and tradition here. But I also know that we have to make some financial decisions that help move our athletic program to the next level.”
Kansas won the national championship in basketball this year, breaking a drought of 20 years. It also became only the second program ever to win both a basketball national championship and a BCS bowl game in the same year. The Kansas football team won a school-record 12 games in 2007, capping the season with an Orange Bowl victory and a No. 7 ranking.
WHAT PEOPLE
ARE SAYING:
“It’s simple. Lew is a very passionate, committed person to student athletes and coaches and putting them in the best situation to be successful in what they do.”
JEFF HATHAWAY
AD, University of Connecticut
Perkins has more than doubled the athletic department budget in less than five years, raising it from $24 million to $55 million and turning the ledgers from red ink to black. A new, $32 million football practice facility is scheduled to open this year. Kansas also is midway through a $45 million capital campaign dedicated to a basketball complex.
Last football season, Perkins saw benefits in moving the school’s traditional anchor football game, the “Border War” against Missouri, to a neutral site, Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. While the move was not popular in all circles — it cost businesses in town the revenue from a home game and Chiefs season-ticket holders held first-option on many of the seats — Perkins fought through opposition and turned the game into a financial winner.
By moving from its 51,000-seat stadium in Lawrence to 80,000-seat Arrowhead, about 45 minutes away, Kansas boosted its net from the game by about $2.5 million, Perkins said.
“We have about 60,000 [alumni] in Kansas City, so for us to take a game there is huge,” Perkins said. “We were able to do, around the game, so many other things. And not just athletically, but from a university point of view.”
With Kansas and Missouri ranked second and fourth in the nation, respectively, heading into the game, the Jayhawks were able to use the weekend to rally supporters behind a long-dormant football program that aspires to national prominence. Though Kansas lost the game, it turned out to be a national coming out for the program, with an audience of 11 million watching on ABC in prime time.
“I like to take credit for that,” Perkins said, chuckling. “I knew both of us were going to be 11-0 or 10-1 when we were talking about moving it.”
Only second school ever to win a men’s basketball championship and BCS bowl game in the same year.
