Lewis (Lew) Perkins spent 13 years as athletic director at the University of Connecticut, coming to UConn in July of 1990 after serving in the same position at the University of Maryland from 1987-90.
In his 13 years as UConn’s AD, Perkins directed the athletics department to unprecedented success both academically and athletically.
Perkins supervises 24 intercollegiate programs that have enjoyed outstanding broad-based success. In addition, Perkins oversees the Department of Recreational Services, which services nearly 3,000 students, faculty and staff per day, facilitating their personal growth and well being.
Some of the highlights of UConn’s athletic success story in Perkins’ tenure include six NCAA Division One national championships — women’s basketball in 1995, 2000, 2002 and 2003, men’s basketball in 1999 and men’s soccer in 2000. A total of 58 Husky teams have earned NCAA Division One tournament berths and UConn has won 60 Big East Conference Championships.
In addition to overseeing the record-setting success of the UConn athletic programs, Perkins also has been lauded for championing the successful upgrade of the UConn football program to Division I-A status. In May of 2000, the Connecticut legislature approved, and Governor John G. Rowland signed into law, legislation that would provide funding for a 40,000-seat stadium in East Hartford. The $90 million stadium will open in August of 2003. The Huskies will compete as a Big East Conference member beginning in 2005.
In 2001-02, UConn’s 24 intercollegiate athletic teams compiled an overall record of 273-167-13 (.603). The year was highlighted when the Connecticut women’s basketball team won the 2002 NCAA championship with a 39-0 record.
UConn finished second in both the men’s and women’s standings in the Big East Conference Commissioner’s Trophy race. The school’s athletic teams also produced a total of 16 All-Americans from nine different sports in 2001-02.
In 1998-99, Perkins directed the completion of UConn’s NCAA certification process which resulted in a finding that the UConn athletics department was in substantial conformity with all 17 operating principles established by the NCAA in its athletics certification program.
During the 1995-96 academic year, under Perkin’s direction, a wide-ranging Title IX Compliance Plan was developed and was approved by UConn’s board of trustees. The purpose of the plan is to effectuate full and permanent compliance with the athletic provisions of the regulation implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
Included in UConn’s Title IX Compliance Plan was the addition of varsity intercollegiate programs in three women’s sports — lacrosse became a varsity sports in the spring of 1997, rowing became a varsity sport in the fall of 1997, and ice hockey became a varsity sport in 2000-01 and begins play in the Hockey East league in 2002-03.
Under Perkins’ direction, athletic fund-raising in 2001-02 reached the $10 million mark for the third straight year. UConn Club membership also established a new standard with more than 5,300 members. Success also was realized in the continuing development of Connecticut’s expanding endowed scholarship program.
Perkins also oversees the multi-faceted involvement with more than 25 companies who comprise UConn’s Athletic Corporate Partnership Program. In the summer of 2002, he oversaw completion of a landmark 10-year partnership with People’s Bank and UConn athletics.
During Perkin’s tenure at UConn, he led the university in an aggressive effort to upgrade its athletic facilities.
During 1998-99, Perkins supervised the completion and opening of the University of Connecticut Ice Arena, a $4 million on-campus facility.
During 1996-97, Perkins guided the completion of two major athletic facility improvement projects, the $14 million Student Recreation Facility, which included the reconstruction and remodeling upgrade to the Hugh S. Greer Field House, Guyer Gymnasium and Brundage Pool, as well as a $2.5 million program which added approximately 1,600 seats to the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.
During 1995-96, Perkins supervised completion of the George J. Sherman Family Sports Complex, a $3.5 million outdoor artificial-turf field and eight-lane track facility, which is used for intercollegiate events as well as recreation and intramural activities.
Perkins also was instrumental in the formation of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Confernece (MAAC) Ice Hockey League, which began play in the fall of 1998 with Connecticut as one of eight charter members.
Perkins has supervised the implementation of both a student-athlete handbook and a policy and procedures manual of the athletics department. During the 2000-01 season, the academic retention rate for UConn’s 600 intercollegiate student-athletes was more than 99 percent. Nearly 40 percent of all student-athletes achieved a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.
Perkins secured UConn’s long-range media plans in television, radio and the Internet. In the spring of 2002, UConn signed a new three-year television package with WFSB-Channel 3, the CBS affiliate in Hartford, Conn., to televise five UConn football games per year and the men’s basketball and football coaches’ shows.
In addition, UConn signed a new six-year contract in the summer of 2001 for men’s basketball, women’s basketball and football with radio station WTIC-AM (1080), the only 50,000-watt station in the state.
In the spring of 2001, Perkins supervised completion of a corporate partnership agreement with NERAC, a company based in Tolland, Conn., which will work with the athletics department in maintaining the school’s athletic web site — www.uconnhuskies.com.
In June of 2000, Perkins was honored as the inaugural winner of the National Athletic Director of the Year award as selected by Street & Smith SportsBusiness Journal, in conjunction with the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA). He was recognized for his overall leadership skills during the decade of the 1990s and for the numerous successes realized with the UConn athletics department during the 1999-2000 academic year.
Perkins is in his second year of a four-year term on the NACDA’s executive committee. He recently completed terms on two prestigious national-level committees — the NCAA Championships/Competition Cabinet and the NCAA Bowl Certification Committee. In 1997-98, Perkins served as chairman of the Big East women’s basketball committee, and from 1995-97 he served as chairman of the Big East executive committee after serving as chairma of the conference’s television committee.
During the 1994-95 season, he received the Crystal Award from the UConn Club for dedication and service to the Connecticut athletics department and the Distinguished Service Award from UConn’s national championship women’s basketball team.
A native New Englander, Perkins was inducted into his high school’s Hall of Fame in 1989, and was honored in his hometown of Chelsea, Mass. He left the region during his college days, playing basketball at Iowa from 1965 to 1967 and earning his undergraduate degree in 1967.
From 1969 to 1980, Perkins served as athletic director at the University of South Carolina at Aiken as that institution grew from a junior college to a four-year school. During his tenure at USC-Aiken, he also was head basketball coach from 1969-79 and received his master’s degree in education (1975) from the University of South Carolina.
From 1980-83, Perkins served as associate athletic director at the University of Pennsylvania. He was responsible for the day-to-day operations of Penn’s broad-based intercollegiate program (28 varsity sports), as well as managing two of college athletics most famous structures — the Palestra and Franklin Field.
In March of 1983, Perkins was named athletic director at Wichita State University. In April of 1987, he moved on to the Atlantic Coast Conference as athletic director at the University of Maryland, where he remained until accepting the same position at UConn in July of 1990.
Perkins is married to the former Gwen Flaum. Like her husband, Gwen earned both an undergraduate degree from Iowa and a master’s degree in education from the University of South Carolina. She works in public education for the East Hartford (Conn.) School System.
Lew and Gwen have two daughters. Amy (Perkins) Macneill, a 1993 graduate of the University of Maryland who completed a master’s degree in education at UConn in the spring of 1998, is continuing her career in higher education administration. Her husband, Brandon Macneill, is associate director of athletics for marketing and development at Princeton. Holly (Perkins) Halligan, 1996 graduate of the University of Connecticut, is account manager for MSN@Microsoft in Houston. Her husband, Tom Halligan, was the manager of player information for the NFL’s Houston Texans.
