Lew Perkins

Position: Athletics Director

Lew Perkins has served as Director of Athletics at the University of Kansas since June 2003. He arrived at KU after achieving nationally recognized success as athletics director at the University of Connecticut. In the summer of 2008 Perkins topped the public voting in TIME Magazine's online poll of the best sports executives in the world. He was the only college sports administrator to make TIME's list of 35 individuals, which included team owners, team managers, league commissioners and other executives from around the world.

Kansas Athletics has experienced tremendous growth and success during Perkins' tenure.

• In the fall of 2009, the student-athletes in KU's 18-sport program tied an Athletics Department record for a fall semester, earning a combined 2.99 grade-point average. Eight KU teams posted 3.0 grade-point averages or better, and 274 student-athletes on active rosters (53 percent) posted a 3.0 GPA or higher, including 34 with perfect 4.0 GPA's.
• The football team won consecutive bowl games -- the 2008 Orange Bowl, which capped a school-record 12-win season, and the 2008 Insight Bowl -- marking the first time in school history that KU has played in bowl games in back-to-back seasons. KU football has now been bowl-eligible in five of the last seven seasons;
• The men's basketball team won the 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, reached the Elite Eight of the 2004 and 2007 NCAA Championships and the Sweet 16 in 2009. The team has won the last six Big 12 Conference regular-season championships, as well as the 2007, 2008 and 2010 Big 12 Tournament titles;
• The women's volleyball team has appeared in three NCAA tournaments, reaching the second round in 2003 and 2004;
• The women's soccer team has appeared in three NCAA tournaments, reaching the Sweet 16 in 2003;
• The softball team won the Big 12 Championship in 2006 and reached the NCAA tournament for the second straight season;
• The baseball team won the Big 12 Championship in 2006 and reached the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1994; baseball also earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament in 2009.
• The women's basketball team reached the championship game of the 2009 Women's National Invitation Tournament, drawing a Big-12 record crowd of 16,113 for the game. The team also competed in the 2006, 2008 and 2010 WNITs;
• Several track-and-field student-athletes have won NCAA titles, and many have received All-America and All-Big 12 honors.

Kansas Athletics fundraising has reached unprecedented levels. Under Perkins, KU's $27-million athletics budget has grown to more than $55 million. That fundraising, including landmark apparel and corporate-partner contracts, has resulted in greater services for KU coaches and student-athletes, and numerous upgrades in KU's athletics facilities:

• The $31 million Anderson Family Football Complex and two new practice fields - adjacent to Kivisto Field at Memorial Stadium - were completed in summer 2008;
• The Booth Family Hall of Athletics, which opened in January 2006 in Allen Fieldhouse and was expanded in 2009, celebrates the tradition and history of Kansas Athletics; a beautiful Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame exhibit was unveiled in the Hall of Athletics in February 2008;
• The spirit and aura of Allen Fieldhouse have been enhanced by two major renovations. The latest improvements include a new practice facility, new locker rooms and lounges, a beautiful new donor atrium, new concourses and concession stands. Prior renovations included freshly painted bleachers, new windows, new lighting and sound systems, and a new center-hung scoreboard, which includes a large, state-of-the-art video board;
• The baseball complex now includes a beautiful new clubhouse, an indoor hitting facility and a new scoreboard, complete with a large, state-of-the-art video board;
• A new Aquatic Rehabilitation Center houses three Hydroworx pools that enhance rehabilitation efforts under the guidance and supervision of the University of Kansas Sports Medicine Staff.

Perkins has served on many NCAA, Big 12 Conference and other prestigious committees, including the Basketball Issues Committee. At the conference level, Perkins has served as Chair of the Big 12 Board of Athletics Directors and as a member of the Big 12 Television Committee. In spring 2005 he was named to the Board of Directors of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Additionally, he is a member of the Gatorade Board of Directors.

At Connecticut (1990-2003), Perkins was instrumental in guiding UConn athletics to impressive growth - athletically, academically and financially. His leadership influenced six NCAA Division I National Championships.

He was rewarded in 2000 as the inaugural winner of the National Athletic Director of the Year Award as selected by Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal, in conjunction with the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA).

A native of Chelsea, Mass., Perkins was inducted into his high school Hall of Fame in 1989. A highly recruited basketball player, he played at the University of Iowa (1965-67) for Hall of Fame coach and KU graduate Ralph Miller. Perkins earned his undergraduate degree there in 1967.

Perkins served as Director of Athletics (1969-80) and head basketball coach (1969-79) at the University of South Carolina Aiken as that institution grew from a junior college to a four-year institution. He received his master's degree in education (1975) from the University of South Carolina. Perkins delivered the commencement address and received an honorary Doctor of Education degree at USC Aiken in May 2005. Perkins also has served as athletics director at the University of Maryland and Wichita State University, and associate director of athletics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Perkins is married to the former Gwen Flaum. Like Lew, Gwen earned an undergraduate degree from Iowa and a master's degree in education from the University of South Carolina. They have two daughters - Amy (husband Brandon Macneill) and Holly - and two granddaughters (Caroline and Alexandra Macneill).