Kevin Michael White (born September 25, 1950)[1] is an American college administrator, and former athletic director at Duke University. He held this position from May 30, 2008, until his retirement on September 1, 2021. White succeeded Joe Alleva as the Blue Devils' AD when Alleva accepted the same position at Louisiana State University.
White is a career educator, having started as a high school teacher at Gulf High School, in New Port Richey, Florida. While at Gulf High, he coached cross country and track and assisted with the football and wrestling programs.
College
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.
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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]
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). White is also responsible for the hiring and retaining of Duke women's basketball coach Joanne P. McCallie (even after McCallie was investigated by Duke for the mistreatment of players and assistant coaches).[4]
Family
White and his wife Jane have five children, three sons and two daughters. Four of their children work in college athletics: Mike, head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs men's basketball team; Danny, newly hired in January 2021 as athletic director of the Tennessee Volunteers;[5] Brian, athletic director for the Florida Atlantic Owls;[6] and Mariah Chappell, assistant athletic director for the SMU Mustangs.[5] Their eldest child, Maureen Treadway, is a high school English teacher in Arizona.[7]