Exclusive: Will Perdue on the Record Part II
In part one of our conversation with former Vanderbilt basketball star Will Perdue, we told you about his Twitter conversation with another former Commodore athletes and current member of the Black and Gold Club. Today we take you into Perdue's thoughts on the situation inside the Vanderbilt athletic department.
That conversation began when Perdue responded to a tweet from the university on social media. What made him respond to that initial post from Vanderbilt?
"Over the years, so basically since the day I graduated, I've been in and out of the fold as far as I'm all in, I support Vanderbilt athletics. I've never been in a position where I didn't want Vanderbilt athletics to succeed," said Perdue. "I always felt like, for the most part, we could make it a very successful and profitable venture. You see other similar schools continue to do it, so you always feel like there are different models out there that work, so why can't Vanderbilt seem to figure it out?"
"A lot of my frustration over the years has been pointed at the athletic department, and as the years have gone one and I've been in, I've been out, I've been in, I've been out and just dealing with the frustrations of not seeing a lot of progress," continued Perdue. "Yeah, we've had winning seasons but not just the constant forward movement of not only the athletic department but the athletic teams, the facilities."
Perdue wasn't done, as the frustration of years of watching what he has was evident in his tone.
"At the end of the day, whether you like it or not, we are in the SEC, we are a member of the SEC and we have to live up to SEC standards," said Perdue. "And the common them always seemed to be and continues to be lack of funds. Every time I go back to Vanderbilt, and I'm not there that often, but I try to go to one football game a year, I try to go to a couple of basketball games a year, sometimes more, sometimes less, but when I do, you see the actual evolvement of the campus and the university side of things. Ne buildings, new classrooms, new dorms, just constant investment in the university.
"But then all you have to do is walk to the other side of campus and you continue to see what's going on outside of baseball and what Tim Cobin's doing and you don't see a lot of improvement. You don't see a lot of investment," stated Perdue. "Why is there such a divide between the university and the athletic department? Yet they constantly tell us they just don't have the funds, but then all of a sudden you're investing a hundred million dollars in the future of Vanderbilt academics by targeting specific professors and doctors because you're trying to make things better."
"Perfect. I agree with that wholeheartedly, but why are we not doing the same thing on the athletic side," Perdue said. "Why are we not getting the same commitment from the university? Why are we constantly being stonewalled?"
Perdue then went farther.
"I don't want to say I pioneered, I occasionally step up to the plate and try to generate some momentum and reach out to people and make phone calls, talk to administrators and former athletes, and yet, as they say, we always seem to get cut off at the pass," continued Perdue. "I've had more than one person, all three alumni from different sports who, with no comments just forwarding articles to me, and I'm like, we've seen this time and time again, so when is this going to change?
"Timing's everything and I was frustrated, and again I know from talking to former student-athletes that are alumni that they feel like they're disrespected, the university doesn't care about them, but the biggest thing is, and I have this same problem, the only time we ever truly hear from the athletic department or the university is when they are having a fundraiser or pledge drive and they want money. That's it."
There was a demonstrable change in Perdue's tone in those final words, where his frustration was apparent.
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