FORMER KU CHANCELLOR (Odds)

Gene Budig, 63, is now senior adviser to the commissioner of baseball and teaches at Princeton University.

He has had a career that has taken him through academia, journalism, the military, politics and professional sports.

His early years included working as a newspaper reporter, working for the governor of Nebraska and being a full professor at the University of Nebraska.

He later headed up three major colleges -- including Kansas University -- was in the Air National Guard for 30 years, retiring as a major general.

Then he turned his lifelong fascination with baseball into a career move, becoming president of the American League.

Budig was KU chancellor from August 1981 to July 1994.

Budig, originally from McCook, Neb., earned three degrees at the University of Nebraska, working his way through school as a reporter for the Lincoln Star and Journal. He earned a bachelor's degree in English, a master's degree in journalism and a doctorate in education at Nebraska.

In 1973, he was named president of Illinois State University, where he stayed for four years before becoming president of West Virginia University in Morgantown.

At the age of 42, Budig was the unanimous choice by the Kansas Board of Regents to become KU's 14th chancellor. He was installed on Aug. 24, 1981, and held that position until July 29, 1994.

During those 13 years, Budig was instrumental in changing academic programs, adding new buildings to the landscape and helping to bring in more students.

Has obvious ties to KU, but would he leave his current jobs to come back at a lower position than he had when he left Mount Oread?

"Many things have been made better and it has been the highest honor to be associated with the people of KU," Budig said, in a 1994 interview. "I want to be remembered as one who worked hard for others and who never lost sight of the university's importance to society."
Budig's years in Strong Hall were dotted with relatively few moments of controversy, and those he adroitly handled to depart the university on his own terms.

His only regret, he said, is that he should have raised more private funding for the university, especially in the early 1980s.
Budig, 55, and his wife, Gretchen, and the three children -- Mary Frances, Chris and Kathryn -- cherish their years in the chancellor's mansion, called The Outlook.

"Lawrence will always be special to our family," Budig said. "It is home."

Gift honors Budig's commitment to teaching (7-29-94) Gene Budig speaks at KU (02-19-2002) Budig's timeline at KU and in the American League

Banker Jordan Haines of Wichita was a member of the state Board of Regents when the regents hired Budig in March 1981.

When Budig's selection was announced, Haines called the new chancellor: "Not flamboyant, not bombastic, not dynamic in the sense that he might be a spellbinder, but he is a fine educator." In a 1994 interview, Haines said, "... If I thought he was the right man for the job in 1981. ... I feel even more strongly about that today."
Budig's colleagues and peers were asked to described him as deliberate, precise, poised, succinct, sophisticated, cautious, efficient, shrewd, distinguished, hard-working, dry-witted, organized, honest, detail-oriented and a master of the low profile.
In 1994, Peter Magrath, president of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, said "Budig is one of the best executives that I have encountered -- and I've known a lot of them," said Magrath, former president of the University of Missouri system. "One, he is focused and always knows the mission of the enterprise. Secondly, he promotes the institution ... not himself."

Here are some highlights of Budig's accomplishments at KU:

* In academics, national publications recently placed KU eighth overall among public universities and among the 20 best college educational values. Nationally, 33 of KU's academic programs rank in the top 10.

* A record $700 million has been raised through the KU Endowment Association since 1981.

* He led the fight to stop the financial hemorrhaging at KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan. KUMC is now one of the Midwest's best-organized teaching hospitals. It also topped revenue projections by $95 million in the Budig years.

* Budig presided over one of the most successful periods in KU athletic history, in which KU won the NCAA men's basketball national championship in 1988.

* Funds to accomplish the changes Budig wanted came from Campaign Kansas, which raised $265 million from 1988 to 1993. The original campaign goal was $150 million.

The drive helped double the number of endowed professorships and increase support for scholarships and fellowships by 80 percent.

KUEA elicited the largest donation in KU history at the start of the drive, a $10 million gift from Lied Foundation trustee Christina Hixson that enabled construction of the Lied Center, a showcase for the performing arts.

By the end of Campaign Kansas, 48 gifts of $1 million or more were in hand. Another 43 donations ranged between $500,000 and $1 million.

While at KU, Budig oversaw $425 million in new construction and renovation projects. Those included a renovation of the Kansas Union, a refurbishment of Snow Hall, about $20 million secured to rebuild Hoch Auditorium after it burned in a fire. (It's now known as Budig Hall).

The Dole Human Development Center, Anschutz Science Library, an addition to Malott Hall and expansions on the Anschutz Sports Complex and on the parking garage north of Allen Fieldhouse, were also feathers in Budig's cap.

Budig said the most notable addition to campus in his tenure at KU has been the Lied Center on west campus.

JAYHAWK ATHLETICS
In intercollegiate athletics, the Budig years were marked by some of the Jayhawks' finest moments. There were also problems.

There was an NCAA national championship in men's basketball, the football team won a bowl game and the baseball team made it to the College World Series.

Meanwhile, the football program was hit with probation in 1983 and the men's basketball program was placed on probation in 1988.

In the 1994 interview, Budig said the three most prominent KU athletic department leaders when he left -- Athletic Director Bob Frederick, basketball Coach Roy Williams and football Coach Glen Mason -- have brought honor on the university.

He also said intercollegiate athletic programs nationwide should be held to higher standards.

Budig, who wasn't successful at playing baseball, tried his hand at writing about baseball, working as a reporter for newspapers in Lincoln, Neb. For a time, his beat was McCook's minor league baseball team.

After becoming chancellor at KU, he played second base for a recreational fastpitch softball league. His number was 00.