Unhappy donor gives WVU $1.1 million for academic scholarships
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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Disaffected donor Ken Kendrick, before meeting face to face with West Virginia President Mike Garrison to discuss in part Kendrick's concerns over athletic-department leadership, has given his alma mater a gift of $1 million toward academic scholarships -- the same amount the university spent on unsold Fiesta Bowl tickets.
Kendrick, who two weeks ago along with fellow benefactor Bob Reynolds withdrew a combined $12 million in pledges, met with WVU Foundation President R. Wayne King over the weekend and handed him a check that essentially reimburses the university for the 8,000 or so tickets that remained from the school's allotment of 17,500. Those unsold tickets are being doled out to charities through the Fiesta Bowl, which seeks to sell out the game that Wednesday matches West Virginia and Oklahoma inside University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.
"I'm delighted to help the university and always am," Kendrick, a Princeton, W.Va., native and part owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He added that, as a resident, he wanted to make a gesture toward Mountaineers fans coming to this region after so many lost money on travel packages to New Orleans for a national-championship game that West Virginia didn't reach: "My donation is partly built around the Phoenix community and that ... the university doesn't suffer as much as it would have if it hadn't gotten this gift."
Garrison added today in an impromptu news conference that followed the head coaches' pressers at the Camelback Inn, "Were very pleased that Ken was interested in making a donation toward non-athletic scholarships."
However, this donation doesn't change Kendrick's issues with the athletic department, primarily the stewardship of Athletic Director Ed Pastilong and Assistant Athletic Director Mike Parsons. He reiterated to Garrison his concerns at a Mountaineers social event New Year's Eve -- a meeting at Garrison's request, he said.
"I at least looked him in the eye and said to him directly things I've said to others," Kendrick said. "There are problems in the athletic department that need to be corrected, leadership problems. Now the ball's in his court. I hope he'll do something to correct what I think is a pretty severe problem with the university, incompetent leadership."
In other football-related news, the name of Alabama coach Nick Saban has been raised in the search for a successor Rich Rodriguez, who left two weeks ago for Michigan. Saban, a Marion County native the same as Rodriguez and Gov. Joe Manchin, is a candidate that stirs the interest of the governor, who has taken an active role in the search. Saban and Manchin are longtime friends.
Saban, however, makes more than double -- at $4 million -- the donor-funded salary given to Rodriguez, and West Virginia has discussed a $1.3 million salary with a few of the candidates. Alabama hired Saban barely one year ago after Rodriguez stayed at his alma mater, thanks to the intervention of a group of donors.
First Published January 1, 2008 1:57 pm
