Exclusive: Will Perdue Speaks Out on Athletic Department Issue
Two former Vanderbilt athletes became involved in a tense discussion on Twitter late last week when a prominent member of the Vanderbilt Black & Gold Club publicly insinuated that another former athlete's comments on the social media platform were "trending toward a bigoted point of view."
Alphonso Harvey, a former Vanderbilt football player who graduated in 1999, authored the post in question in response to former Vanderbilt basketball star Will Perdue's comments about its athletic department.
Perdue, who attended Vanderbilt from 1982-88, responded to a tweet from Vanderbilt's administration where he shared a thought on the current situation within the athletic department regarding current and former athletes.
"Excuse me@VanderbiltU.This is important, but you're telling every current and former athlete that YOU don't care about US, the facilities are just fine, we're not a priority, there's no money, etc. We are a part of this University. Stop treating us like shit!!"
Harvey, who was handpicked by the athletic department as a member of the Black & Gold Club, then returned serve. The two former Commodore athletes then engaged in a series of tweets on the issue. During the exchange, Harvey referred to the aforementioned "bigoted point of view."
Commodore Country spoke with Perdue on Monday, and the former Commodore shared his thoughts on this situation and more.
"I know of the Black and Gold Club, I've heard about the Black and Gold Club, I have not been approached by anybody from the Black and Gold Club except the gentleman (Harvey) who decided to try to attack me on Twitter," said Perdue. "I know he is the head of the football portion of the Black and Gold Club."
"I had to ask who was the representative for basketball, and I believe that's Shan Foster," Perdue said. "I don't even know for a fact, but I'm pretty sure that's who it is. But nobody from the athletic department has called me directly, or nobody from the Black and Gold Club have called me directly to say, hey, I'd like to introduce myself, this is what we're doing. I just know of the Black and Gold Club, and I've just heard about the Black and Gold Club," concluded Perdue.
It's clear both men are invested in their alma mater and passionate about the direction of its athletic department.
"I'm now 55 years old, so I understand the importance of transparency and honesty, and that's part of the frustration too because Vanderbilt is a private institution," said Perdue. "They don't have to reveal anything. It's very secretive, and that's frustrating for former athletes and students because we don't know what's going on over there."
"We just keep hearing, be patient, there's a lot of things in the works," continued Perdue. "People occasionally reach out to me and are like, so what exactly have you done for the University?
Perdue then shared what he has proposed to multiple athletic directors at Vanderbilt.
"From every single director from Todd Turner to David Williams to Malcolm Turner and in between, I've sat down with each of those athletic directors and asked them if I could come work for the university, in a paid position, not hey, I want to come volunteer to help you raise money," said Perdue. "I want to come work for the University and help the athletic department in a paid position to help them turn around the athletic department in the sense of helping raise more money and helping turn around what people think of the athletic department.
"I want to help do this, that or whatever is necessary, because I feel very proud to have gone to a university like Vanderbilt," continued Perdue. "I feel very fortunate. I feel like C.M. Newton did me a favor by offering me a scholarship to play basketball there."
"I've always been concerned and worried about the direction of the athletics, but I also had a caveat with each of those offers," said Perdue. "My caveat was, I would like a paid position with Vanderbilt University, whether it's part-time or full time, you tell me how I can help, and what I will do is I will take my salary that you're going to pay me and I will turn around and donate it to the university for a scholarship fund."
"We could call it the Will Perdue Scholarship, and you could use it for basketball," added Perdue. "I was not specific about how it was to be used, but it was to be used for an athletic scholarship. I basically was turned down by every single athletic director."
"They basically said, that's a great idea, let me look into this and let me get back to you," concluded Perdue. "They all got back to me and said, at this time, this is not something we can do. But, we would appreciate it if you would continue to support the athletic department and basically write us a check."
It's easy to see why both fans and former athletes have grown dissatisfied with the University's athletic department after years of unfulfilled promises to improve the facilities for all athletes.
Perdue has a respected voice. He is now speaking out to share his feeling and hopefully draw more attention to what is going on within the University and its athletic department.
As for Harvey and his use of the word "bigoted," I've yet to find anything of that nature in any of Perdue's comments. However, I can't view the discussion from the eyes of Harvey to see what he would choose to enter that into this discussion when an improved athletic department at Vanderbilt would benefit all students of every color.
NOTE: Former Vanderbilt basketball standout Will Perdue spoke with Commodore Country on Monday. This is part one of that conversation.
Follow Greg on Twitter @GregAriasSports and @SIVanderbilt or Facebook at Vanderbilt Commodores-Maven.
