Speaking of Ken Pye....
Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:37 pm
Speaking of Ken Pye... I will share a funny story with all of you. One day I showed up at Ken Pye's office along with a journalist, and handed Pye's secretary my business card. I could hear the howls from Pye's office when she went back there to tell him who had come to visit. The day before, we had distributed tens of thousands of leaflets around campus with the headline: THE BIG LIE FROM PYE! I personally made sure there were leaflets in every classroom, on every desk in Dallas Hall, in the Cox School of Business, etc. Then, I sent out a press release to AP and the Dallas Morning News.
The leaflets explained precisely why Pye's argument concerning the cash burn rate in the football program was an accounting device to support his efforts to undermine our team. While there was a deficit, it was not nearly as large as Pye claimed.
Pye came out red in the face, ready to attack, but then I had the journalist with me... What a wonderful scene. He said I had called him a liar, and I asked him why he continued spreading his big lies to the Dallas Morning News? As SMU was a fixed cost institution with the "costs" of scholarships charged to the Athletic department, the actual cost of allowing another 85-100 student athletes into the classroom or student housing was marginal. Thus, his numbers did not add up, and his argument was nonsense.
Well, Pye was so angry I thought he was going to have a heart attack right there in his own office. The next week we played UH at Ownby and we handed out another 15,000 petitions for signatures, with one going to Lamar Hunt, who personally thanked me for my efforts. I still remember handing Lamar a petition and having him sign. We trounced UH with that great senior class of former freshmen no one wanted. Pye never recovered.
I will always remember that it takes a few radicals to stir up the pot for the diplomats to solve the problems. We saved the team from destruction. That was the best I could do then. Now we have more work to do.
The leaflets explained precisely why Pye's argument concerning the cash burn rate in the football program was an accounting device to support his efforts to undermine our team. While there was a deficit, it was not nearly as large as Pye claimed.
Pye came out red in the face, ready to attack, but then I had the journalist with me... What a wonderful scene. He said I had called him a liar, and I asked him why he continued spreading his big lies to the Dallas Morning News? As SMU was a fixed cost institution with the "costs" of scholarships charged to the Athletic department, the actual cost of allowing another 85-100 student athletes into the classroom or student housing was marginal. Thus, his numbers did not add up, and his argument was nonsense.
Well, Pye was so angry I thought he was going to have a heart attack right there in his own office. The next week we played UH at Ownby and we handed out another 15,000 petitions for signatures, with one going to Lamar Hunt, who personally thanked me for my efforts. I still remember handing Lamar a petition and having him sign. We trounced UH with that great senior class of former freshmen no one wanted. Pye never recovered.
I will always remember that it takes a few radicals to stir up the pot for the diplomats to solve the problems. We saved the team from destruction. That was the best I could do then. Now we have more work to do.