In the wake of a $1.03 million ticket-scalping scandal, U. Kansas Athletics Director Lew Perkins publicly announced he was blackmailed by a former employee.
At Big 12 Conference meetings on June 1 in Kansas City, Mo., Perkins described himself as a victim. Former KU director of sports medicine William Dent allegedly blackmailed Perkins after he exchanged rehabilitation equipment for valuable basketball seats.
Students at the University say they have mixed feelings about the drama at the Athletics Department.
“I almost feel betrayed,” Kate Stedman, a junior from Overland Park, said. “It seems like Perkins has just been covering up a bunch of schemes and scandals for the players and now it’s employees too.”
Other students, such as Matt Reissen, a senior from Overland Park, say the Athletics department, not the athletes, is the problem.
“ESPN uses it as another excuse to bash our athletics programs, but it just has to do with athletics employees, not the actual athletes,” Reissen said.
Reissen was the spirit coordinator for Student Union Activities last spring. Reissen said students could recognize him from the stands of Allen Field House at Border Showdown games taunting University of Missouri fans with a noose around a stuffed tiger’s neck. Reissen said the news about Perkins hadn’t changed his feelings for the University or its sports teams, but that he was concerned with how recent scandals would affect booster donations.
“Hopefully they’ll do something to show the people who support our school that we won’t let this slide,” Reissen said.
Stedman had similar thoughts. “It can’t possibly make those who donate happy to know that the seats they could be getting and being sold,” she said.
Morgan Jackson, a junior from Beloit, said dealing with rivals of the University was most annoying aspect of the scandal.
“I haven’t lost faith in KU athletics,” Jackson said, “but I do get heckled a lot more by my friends that are Missouri fans.”
Associate athletics director Jim Marchiony said the department would not give further information regarding the blackmail.
“It has been turned over to the Lawrence Police Department and there is an ongoing investigation,” Marchiony said. “They have asked us not to comment and we will respect that.”
Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little is expected to meet with the Board of Regents and determine a course of action when she returns to the country later this month.