2008 A.D.

White: from Fighting Irish to Blue Devils.

 

Jon Gardiner

Kevin White, director of athletics at the University of Notre Dame since 2001, has been named Duke's new vice president and athletics director. He succeeds Joe Alleva, who resigned in April after ten years in the post and thirty-two on Duke's staff to accept the top position in Louisiana State University's athletics department.

White, fifty-seven, has led Notre Dame's athletics program to success both on the playing fields and in the classroom. During his eight years there, the Fighting Irish claimed four national championships, in women's basketball (2001), fencing (2003 and 2005), and women's soccer (2004).

On the academic front, all of Notre Dame's twenty-six athletic programs achieved at least a 3.0 grade-point average in 2005-06, the first time this occurred in school history. The university received a 2002 USA Today/ NCAA Academic Achievement Award and the 2003 award for highest overall student-athlete graduation rate.

During his tenure, White added a number of varsity scholarships, commissioned a master plan for athletics facilities, and administered a comprehensive intramural, club sport, and campus recreation program. He has held prominent leadership roles within intercollegiate athletics, including president of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics in 2006-07 and president of the Division I-A Athletic Directors Association in 2005-06. In January 2004, The Sporting News listed him in its Power 100 as third among five names in the "front office" category (and the lone college athletics director among the 100).

Though Notre Dame's football team struggled to a 3-9 finish in 2007, White's résumé also boasts several football bona fides. In August 2003, Sports Illustrated's website listed White third in its rankings of the most powerful people in college football. He currently serves as a representative with the football Bowl Championship Series.

Before joining Notre Dame in 2000, White served as athletics director at Arizona State University, Tulane University, the University of Maine, and Loras College in Iowa.

He previously coached track and field at Southeast Missouri State and Central Michigan. He earned his Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University in 1983 with an emphasis on higher-education administration.

White and his wife, Jane, have five children.