The Kevin White Era of Duke Athletics is finally coming to a close. What a ride it has been.
On Sept. 1, Vice President and director of athletics Kevin White will officially retire and Nina King will take over the reins. White, who arrived at Duke in 2008, oversaw dramatic transformations from personnel to Blue Devil teams' playing venues, with the underlying focus always being on the student-athletes’ success. He made impactful hires and the eight national championships and 23 conference titles during his tenure show that White was instrumental in earning Duke such a revered place in the college sports world.
White previously served as the athletic director at Notre Dame, Arizona State, Tulane, Maine and Loras College, and came to Durham to succeed Joe Alleva in 2008. At his introductory press conference, then-Duke University President Richard Brodhead said to White, “You are an equally great leader of revenue sports and non-revenue sports, men’s sports and women’s sports, varsity sports and intramural sports.” Brodhead added that “[White’s] teams have completely enviable and admirable records as students and as athletes.”
The former Notre Dame administrator, who had no prior ties to Duke, came on after amassing a massive revenue in South Bend, dwarfing that of Duke, according to a Chronicle article published in 2008. The hiring made clear that a main objective of the athletic department was to boost revenue through improving the football program.
Just after Duke football went over two years without a win, the school brought on David Cutcliffe, who was then Tennessee's assistant head coach and offensive coordinator. That hire predated White's arrival, but Cutcliffe's hire made it clear that the athletic department was going to place an emphasis on building the Blue Devil football program. Over the next 13 seasons, Duke won its first ACC Coastal Division title, reached bowl games in six out of the seven seasons from 2012 to 2018 and had nine players drafted into the NFL, including two first rounders.
White also oversaw a massive renovation and modernization of Wallace Wade Stadium and received a $13 million dollar donation from Duke alumnus Steve Brooks and his wife Eileen, whom the field is now named after. For White’s work in bringing Duke football to national prominence, he earned the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Under Armour AD of the Year Award in 2013.
White’s legacy as an athletic director stretches far past football. The Amityville, N.Y., native oversaw two women’s golf championships (2014 and 2019), three men’s lacrosse championships (2010, 2013, 2014), a women’s tennis championship (2009), and men’s basketball national championships in 2010 and 2015.
The University’s 2008 plan to revitalize the athletics department, which included White’s hiring, also meant widespread change through improved connections to the campus and community, fundraising and an enormous facilities upgrade for many Duke sports teams. White has also kept academics at the forefront, as Duke's athletics teams have been near the top nationally in terms of GPA, and several Blue Devils under White have gone on to win Rhodes, Marshall and Fulbright scholarships.
White's lasting impact can be seen in the personnel he was instrumental in hiring—those who have already changed the trajectory of several non-revenue sports. The three hires that stand out are that of baseball head coach Chris Pollard, softball head coach Marissa Young, which coincided with the program’s inception in 2016, and women’s basketball head coach Kara Lawson.
White hired Pollard in 2012 after the previous coach, Sean McNally, resigned following a 21-34 season and only one ACC tournament appearance over seven years. Pollard was the head coach at Appalachian State before, and the relatively unknown skipper quickly made a difference at Duke with White backing him.
Pollard grew the baseball program into a contender, both within the conference and nationally, as the team made four NCAA tournaments over the last six years and has sent plenty of talent to play professional baseball. While the elusive national championship still awaits, Pollard and Duke claimed the ACC tournament title for the first time ever in 2021.
Duke’s newest varsity sport was announced Dec. 13, 2013 as White launched an initiative to expand opportunities to women's sports programs. The school’s 27th varsity sport, softball’s addition led to new athletic scholarships and followed White’s pattern of consistently seeking to create opportunities for student-athletes across all of Duke's sports. In 2015, White and the athletics department chose Marissa Young to be the first head coach in the program’s history—Young was Big Ten player of the year in 2003 as a pitcher at Michigan and had coaching experience at North Carolina and at Eastern Michigan.
Young’s hiring, recruiting and development of the softball program may be one of White’s most underappreciated accomplishments, as the non-revenue sport brought an ACC championship to Durham after only four seasons. The squad only figures to improve as the reputation develops, but White’s commitment to access for athletes to both compete at the highest level and gain an education has propped up the program for years to come.
In July 2020, following the surprising resignation of women’s basketball head coach Joanne P. McCallie, Duke initiated a nationwide coaching search as the program was in need of a captain to take the helm entering the rough seas associated with a COVID-affected basketball season. Not even on the radar, as she was not listed on The Chronicle’s short-list of potential replacements, was Boston Celtics’ assistant coach Kara Lawson.
As a former college and WNBA star, Lawson gained experience in the announcer’s booth and on the sidelines as a coach at 3-on-3 basketball tournaments and was well-respected in professional coaching circles. Though she has only coached 160 minutes of Duke basketball as the 2020-21 season was cancelled due to COVID-19, the former Tennessee star has already made an impact with her immense draw to recruits and transfers.
White is the longest serving athletic director in the ACC and passes on the torch in a crucial moment for Duke athletics. The landscape for student-athletes and NCAA-member schools is rapidly shifting thanks to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling and name-image-likeness rule changes.
He has been in academics, coaching and higher education administration for 47 years and will remain at Duke as an adjunct professor at the Fuqua School of Business. His contributions to the school and athletics department are unmatched, and now it will be up to Nina King, his trusted colleague, to carry the school into a new era.
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Micah Hurewitz is a Trinity senior and was previously a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 118th volume.