Duke AD Kevin White to retire before the end of his contract. Who could replace him?
Kevin White, Duke’s athletic director since 2008 who navigated the Blue Devils to widespread success during times of great change in college sports and the ACC, will retire in August.
The 71-year-old White is under contract through June 30, 2022, at a salary of $1,577,546. But he made the decision to call it a career in athletics a year earlier.
He plans to continue as an adjunct professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.
“This unequivocally represents the most difficult professional decision that I have ever made,” White said in a statement. “As I look forward to completing my 47th year in higher education, including teaching, coaching, and administration, it is simply the right time to step aside and provide a distinct opportunity for both new and different voices, and a more contemporary vision.”
Duke won eight national championships in four sports during White’s tenure. He saw the Blue Devils’ athletic programs meet the school’s high level of academic achievement while succeeding at the ACC and national levels.
White also played a key role in the ACC Network’s creation in 2016 and airing beginning in 2019, giving ACC schools the revenue stream necessary to keep the league competitive with the other Power 5 conferences nationwide.
“College athletics will miss Kevin White,” ACC commissioner John Swofford, who will also retire this summer, said in a statement on Friday. “He has been a North Star his entire career and has proven to be one of the best athletic directors in the country for decades. Kevin is a tremendous friend and colleague who I have relied on for counsel on numerous occasions over the years. Simply put, there is no one I respect more.”
Blue Devils’ NCAA and ACC titles
White came to Duke after stints as a Division I athletic director at Notre Dame (2000-08), Arizona State (1996-2000), Tulane (1991-96) and Maine (1988-91).
During White’s tenure, which began when he replaced Joe Alleva on May 31, 2008, Duke won NCAA championships in men’s basketball (2010, 2015), men’s lacrosse (2010, 2013 and 2014), women’s golf (2014, 2019) and women’s tennis (2009).
Duke teams have won 23 ACC championships during his tenure.
“Kevin White has been, throughout his extraordinary career, a dynamic and impactful leader in intercollegiate athletics and higher education,” Duke University President Vincent Price said in a statement Friday. “His magnificent accomplishments as vice president and director of athletics at Duke built upon an already-secure legacy as a luminary in the world of sport.”
The school even experienced success in football and baseball it hadn’t seen in decades. Having not been to a bowl game or experienced a winning season since the 1994 season, Duke football played in six bowl games in eight seasons beginning in 2012. The Blue Devils won their only ACC Coastal Division championship in 2013.
“Kevin White is legendary in every sense of the word,” Duke football coach David Cutcliffe said in a statement on Friday. “Legends like Dr. White have stories of their accomplishments shared and told by many, many people. During our time here at Duke, we would not have had any chance to move the needle with the football program without the talent, drive, and work ethic of Dr. White. He is, without doubt, the most talented individual I’ve encountered during my career in athletics.”
White hired baseball coach Chris Pollard from Appalachian State in 2013 and the Blue Devils, having not played in the NCAA tournament since 1961, made the tournament in 2016, 2018 and 2019. The last two teams advanced to super regionals, each falling one win shy of the program’s first College World Series appearance since 1961.
Duke’s athletes consistently performed well in the classroom as well. In the 2019-20 school year, 24 of 27 Blue Devil varsity teams earned grade point averages of 3.0 or better during the fall and spring semesters. That year, Duke also set a new league record with 570 athletes making the ACC Honor Roll.
Athletic facilities upgrades
Named the nation’s top athletic director in 2015 by Sports Business Journal, White also spearheaded massive facilities upgrades to Duke’s athletics campus. Originally aiming to raise $250 million, the initiative brought in $365 million for facilities, endowments and operating expenses.
The school spent $140 million to tear down, rebuild and expand Wallace Wade Stadium, which originally opened in 1929, into a modern facility between 2014 and 2017.
A new track stadium was built adjacent to Koskinen Stadium, home to Duke’s soccer and lacrosse teams, with a four-story operations tower in between that services both facilities.
Blue Devil Plaza was built to connect Wallace Wade Stadium, Cameron Indoor Stadium and the new Scott Family Pavilion that includes a team store, team training facilities and athletics department offices.
Cameron Indoor, which opened in 1940, saw no changes to the playing arena but a new two-story addition included an entrance lobby that celebrates Duke’s basketball history along with a hospitality area.
White oversaw it all while also playing a role on college athletics’ national stage as he chaired the NCAA men’s basketball selection committee last year.
“I have absolutely loved working with Kevin the past 13 years,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a statement. “He’s made Duke basketball and me better. He’s made Duke athletics and Duke University better. He’s made all of intercollegiate athletics better for 47 years. No one in college athletics has mentored as many people as Kevin White. Simply put, he is the very best in the business.”
White and his wife, Jane, sprouted a college athletics tree among their five children. Two of their sons are Division I athletic directors, with Danny White at Central Florida and Brian White at Florida Atlantic. Another son, Mike White, is head men’s basketball coach at Florida. One of their daughters, Mariah Chappell, is an assistant AD at Southern Methodist.
“To be sure,” Kevin White said, “I have been so lucky to serve a number of world class institutions, a zillion terribly gifted student-athletes, the very best coaches in the business, amazing administrative teams and highly successful departments, as well as countless of the most committed benefactors and fans, while being most graciously supported by fellow administrative and faculty colleagues, and specifically, eight college and university presidents.”
In addition to his own children entering college athletics, UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham, N.C. State athletic director Boo Corrigan and incoming ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, currently Northwestern’s athletic director, all worked for White during their careers.
“Few people outside of my immediate family have had a bigger impact on my career than Kevin White,” Corrigan said in a statement posted on his Twitter feed Friday. “He changed the course of so many futures with his investment in each individual in an effort to help them succeed.”
Cunningham worked on the ACC’s television subcommittee, with White, when the ACC Network negotiations with ESPN were finalized.
“Kevin White has had an incredible impact on college athletics for decades,” Cunningham said in a statement posted on Twitter. “His commitment to student-athletes and coaches, and to their experiences, will be felt for decades to come. “
Who will be the next Duke AD?
Price, Duke’s president, will lead the search for White’s successor. He’ll have an array of options, including a strong internal candidate in Duke deputy athletics director Nina King. The sport administrator for Duke football and women’s basketball, she chairs the NCAA women’s basketball committee this season.
Two former Duke assistant athletic directors who could be candidates are Stan Wilcox and Mike Cragg.
Wilcox left Duke to become Florida State’s athletic director from 2013-2018. He currently works at the NCAA office in Indianapolis as a vice president for regulatory affairs.
Cragg, a Duke administrator from 1987-2018, is athletic director at St. John’s. Cragg worked closely with men’s basketball during his time at Duke, overseeing the Duke Basketball Legacy Fund that’s helped endow the program’s coaching salaries and scholarships. He handled day-to-day supervision of Duke’s recent athletic facilities upgrades before leaving for St. John’s.
Price could also look to his recent past as Penn’s provost. He was in that job, prior to coming to Duke in 2017, when Grace Calhoun was hired as Penn’s athletic director. She has also chaired the NCAA Division I Council since May 2019.
Whoever replaces White will certainly be tasked with hiring Duke’s next basketball coach, as Krzyzewski turns 74 next month, and likely the next football coach since Cutcliffe turned 66 during last season.
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 2:37 PM.