To the editor:

Kansas Athletics has provided our community a national spotlight for the last six years highlighting the great community we live in. The football facilities are state of the art and Allen Fieldhouse is a national treasure.

Lew Perkins has committed his entire life to building successful and profitable athletic programs. He was recruited here from Connecticut after they won several national championships to do the same at Kansas. We have won the Orange Bowl and a national championship in basketball, and our city has profited from these accomplishments.

The Journal-World needs to report all the facts of the contract including the circumstances and timing. Why don’t we report the salaries of Hollywood elite the same way? KU Medical Center gave a $1.8 million bonus to Irene Cumming after she quit! Where was the outrage on that payment? Where was the front page alert?

Financial analysts say that we need 60 percent of final pay to have enough income in our retirement years to live comfortably. If he took the $2 million and invested it for income at 5 percent a year, that is $100,000 a year before taxes and $66,000 a year after taxes. This equates to about 12 percent of final pay for his entire retirement years.

He is getting the job done and doing it in a first class manner. Perkins is at the end of a great career and if he can sustain this success, then who cares if he is rewarded? It is not taxpayer money!