Phog Allen was an anomaly. Allen spent nearly four decades as Kansas University’s men’s basketball coach. Joe Paterno is today’s Phog Allen. He’s been Penn State’s football coach since Benjamin Franklin was penning “Poor Richard’s Almanac.”
The point is that men and women who stay in one spot in college athletics for decades — KU women’s basketball coach Marian Washington fits the category — are the exception rather than the rule.
Not that college athletics is a vagabond profession, it’s just that it seems to attract people born with itchy feet. Some day this affliction may be known as the Larry Brown Syndrome. Even Roy Williams had a mild case of it.
Anyway, I know I would be hard-pressed to name an athletic director at a major university who has been sitting behind the same desk for more than 20 years. ADs just don’t stay put, whether it’s because of burnout or the need for a new challenge or just plain nomadic genes. They move on.
For instance, I doubt if Bob Frederick would admit it, but I think he burned out after 10 or 11 years as the Jayhawks’ AD, yet Freddy went on to serve 14 years. Bob Marcum, one of Frederick’s predecessors, is a proven nomad. He’s been everywhere. Jim Lessig, who was the Jayhawks’ AD for less than six months back in the mid-80s, departed to become commissioner of the Mid-American Conference.
I’m not sure which cubbyhole I’d stick Lew Perkins in, but I’d guess he was probably possessed of a touch of all three of those tendencies after spending the last 13 years at Connecticut.
Whatever prompted Perkins to leave — no doubt KU’s offer of a $400,000 salary was a colossal carrot — UConn’s loss is the Jayhawks’ gain because, if nothing else, Perkins has proved time and again he can do it, and this is a place where it sorely needs to be done.
“It’s an absolute home run for KU,” said Kurt Watson, a Perkins friend for many years and a Kansas booster and benefactor ever since he graduated in 1974.
Watson and Perkins first met in 1984 when they were neighbors in Wichita. At the time, Perkins was Wichita State’s athletic director and Watson was working for a bank in the Air Capital. They’ve remained friends ever since.
On Perkins’ 50th birthday, Watson joined the celebration on a golf course in Scotland. When Watson’s son, Brett, was looking for a college, Perkins showed him around the UConn campus and introduced him to men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun, who later invited Brett to be a Huskies’ walk-on, which he was for a season. When Watson’s daughter, Kelly, walks down the aisle next week, Perkins and his wife, Gwen, will be at the wedding.
“Here I was at Wichita State and he was a KU booster,” Perkins said, “and we found it didn’t matter that much. In this business, you make friendships that don’t go away.”
Although neither said so, it probably was Watson who made the phone call to Perkins to tell him about the Kansas vacancy, and it’s probably safe to say Watson, a high-profile KU booster, alerted chancellor Robert Hemenway and interim AD Drue Jennings that Perkins might be interested.
Watson, who is president and CEO of a Wichita insurance brokerage, didn’t deny his involvement, but emphasized that “the chancellor and Drue get all the credit on this thing, and that’s the truth.”
Even though they’ve been friends for nearly two decades, Watson says he didn’t realize how accomplished Perkins was as an administrator until he was given a tour of the UConn athletic department a couple of years ago.
“I’ve never been as impressed with the enthusiasm and quality of people I met than I did on that tour,” Watson said. “I went back home and I couldn’t forget how special it was, how all those people were on the same page with one goal. That has stuck with me more than anything. I’ve remembered that so many times.”
Maybe Kansas is destined to be an also-ran in the Big 12 Conference. Perhaps KU can’t hope to match the league’s high-rollers dollar for dollar.
Maybe. Perhaps. I wonder if those words ever have come out of Perkins’ mouth.
