Interesting story on an Iowa icon
I read the article about Nile Kinnick (“President Kinnick?,” Sept. 23) this morning and wanted to thank you for further insight into the man. I’ve been a Nile Kinnick fan for decades and any articles that appear are read with pleasure, anticipation and a little excitement as I hope to gain another nugget of information about one of my heroes.
His life, his words, his story are, sadly, under appreciated in Iowa as well as across the country. One could use Nile Kinnick and his values as a benchmark for raising children, guiding athletes or assessing and correctly affecting circumstances around you. He was a wise man, and I appreciated reading the interesting story by Douglas Burns.
Dave Wyatt
Omaha, Neb.
It pays to be the boss
Thanks Skinny for revealing the details on the University of Iowa’s coaching contract (“Civic Skinny,” Sept. 16). I agree with paying for performance, but 10-year guaranteed contracts in athletics are absurd. Come to mention it, 10-year employment contracts are absurd period.
What’s perhaps most shocking about this contract, according to Skinny, is that Iowa pays Head Coach Kirk Ferentz 75 percent of the remaining contract even if he leaves for more money. Now how about that as a motivator for taking a job out of state! Ferentz deserves to be highly compensated, but whoever was representing Iowa in the contract negotiations was a bozo. Last time I checked, the athletic assets used to generate all this “free cash,” were owned by the people of Iowa. The Regents ought to be involved in long-term, big dollar decisions like this one, particularly when they set the tone for the rest of the University system.
John Norwood
West Des Moine
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