Lew Perkins Fires Hank Booth

It looks like another era is passing this week in Lawrence, and at KU. Hank Booth, a very popular local radio announcer has been off work for a week or so as the Jayhawks men’s basketball announcer at Allen Fieldhouse due to an injury. It looks like Lew Perkins is taking the opportunity to replace him with one of his people, Eric Danielson, who has been doing the women’s basketball games. Booth is an icon in Lawrence, a very public-minded, intelligent, and gifted man who has been in the radio business in Lawrence for many years as a station owner, executive, and announcer.

I would imagine, and I have heard rumors, that Booth would not kowtow to Perkins, who is as intent on growing his power base as he is on anything. So Hank Booth seems to have worn out his welcome with the transplanted Easterner Perkins, a man who has been in Lawrence less than ten percent of the time that Hank Booth has. He has a reputation for running roughshod over anything that preceded his tenure as King of the KU Athletic Department, and he has proven that true again today.

Lew is all about the money and his own power. He has rankled every old-time fan in Lawrence and most of the alums, at least those that cannot write checks for millions of dollars to KU Athletics. Lew has taken seats at Allen Fieldhouse away from people who had sat in them for 40 or 50 years because they did not match his vision of what a KU basketball fan should be, which is rich and willing to write him big checks.

He and his servants in the department have treated a lot of people very badly in a very short period of time. All they care about, obviously, is power and money. Somebody needs to remind them that Kansas University is an educational institution. Lew obviously doesn’t much care about that. If he does, it’s so far down on the priority list that I’ve never heard him mention it. This is supposed to be about the kids; instead, it’s all about Lew.

I wonder how much longer Lew is going to let Chancellor Hemenway stay around?


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