To the editor:

So Perkins is retiring? I doubt it. These hired guns almost never really retire unless they are caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m sure he’s going to take his golden parachute (these guys always have one) and jump ship, but I will bet dollars to donuts that he is already considering new offers. Universities that make the decision to go for the money and hire a money man hire him to do just what Perkins did here: the dirty job that they don’t want to do and have to explain, specifically to break long standing verbal agreements with alumni and big financial supporters and shake them down for more money. Perkins did that very efficiently and with almost complete indifference.

Does that cause hard feelings? You bet your bottom dollar it does. Does he care? Apparently not in the least. The big hired guns — and Perkins is one — seem to have total disregard for the tradition and trust and affection that has been long established between the university and its supporters.

After all, the primary purpose of universities is to win games. Education is just a byproduct. I firmly believe Roy Williams knew what it meant to have Perkins come to KU as the athletic director and it became the perfect excuse to go home.

The ticket scandal still is in process; would it not be nice to know what Perkins knew and when? I firmly believe that Kansas University will be a better place without him.

Everett Hickam,

Lawrence