Kevin White (athletic director)

Kevin Michael White (born September 25, 1950)^[1] is the Director of Athletics at Duke University. He has held this position since May 30, 2008. White succeeded Joe Alleva as the Blue Devils' AD when Alleva accepted the same position at Louisiana State University.

He held similar positions at the University of Notre Dame, Arizona State University, Tulane University, the University of Maine, and Loras College.

Biography

White is a career educator, having started as a high school coach and teacher at Gulf High School, in New Port Richey, Florida. Holding a Ph.D. in education, White taught management courses at Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business in the MBA program during spring semesters of his tenure at the school.

As a coach, White served at Southeast Missouri State University (1981–1982) as the head track and field coach, and as assistant track and field and cross country coach at Central Michigan University (1976–1980). His coaching career started at Gulf High School as the cross country and track coach and assisting with the football and wrestling programs. While at Loras College he originated the National Catholic Basketball Tournament.

White was born in Amityville, New York. Earning a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1972 from St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana, White went on to earn a master's degree in athletics administration from Central Michigan University in 1976. He completed his Ph.D. in 1983 at Southern Illinois University with an emphasis in higher education administration. He has done postdoctoral work at Harvard University in the Institute for Educational Management.

Notre Dame's flagship football program struggled during White's tenure. Notre Dame football teams have started 0–3 only two times in the school's history: in 2001 (the season after White negotiated an extension of coach Bob Davie's contract) and 2007 (two seasons after White gave coach Charlie Weis a 10-year contract extension, which Notre Dame was paying off six seasons after Weis's 2009 firing).^[2]

Dr. White is also responsible for the hiring of George O'Leary^[3] (who was fired a week later after falsifying his resume) and Tyrone Willingham (who started 8-0 but finished 13-15, with eight of those losses coming by 22 points or more, more than any coach in school history).

Interestingly, Kevin White's daughter, Mariah White, attended Duke University from 2009-2013^[4] and was a member of the Duke University Swimming and Diving Team.

References

1. "Loras College Announces 2012 Commencement Speaker: Kevin M. White, Ph.D.". Loras College. Archived from the original on February 21, 2012. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
2. Cherner, Reid.Erin go blah: Irish faithful wonder what went wrong, "USA Today", September 18, 2007. Retrieved on September 20, 2007.
3. Hansen, Eric. Is blindsided AD White next to sit in hot seat at Notre Dame?, "Irish Sports Report", December 16, 2004. Retrieved on November 8, 2007.
4. "Notable Duke alumni". Notable Duke alumni. Retrieved 2016-04-18.

External links

• Duke profile