While in Lawrence, he was Jack White. Now he is known as John “Coach” White. That’s so they won’t confuse him with Jack White, the man who hired him.
As I was going to St. Ives, I met … no, this isn’t a riddle. It’s the story of the only man who has ever coached football at both Kansas University and Jacksonville (Ala.) State.
Never heard of him? I thought so. But you might find Jack, er, John “Coach” White’s story interesting. I mean, he’s the only guy I know who switched careers from football to golf.
From 1976 to ’78, White was a member of Bud Moore’s football cadre on Mount Oread. He had been a graduate assistant at East Carolina when Moore offered him his first full-time job at Kansas in ’76.
“Kansas … all you normally do is fly over it, I thought,” White said in recalling that moment when I reached him in Raleigh, N.C., the other day.
White was in Raleigh because he’s the director of player relations for the PGA Champions Tour. In fact, he has been a PGA of America staffer since 1987, but more on that later.
White arrived in Lawrence on a Sunday and went immediately to the KU football office. He was 25 years old and eager to go to work. But Carole Hadl, the football office secretary, didn’t believe him.
“I’ll never forget that,” White told me. “Carole thought I was a recruit. She was worried I had missed my ride out of town.”
White had been on the football team at Cal Santa Barbara, but the California school dropped the sport while he was enrolled. Yet he stayed at UCSB, graduated, then landed that grad aide post at East Carolina.
During his first two years at KU, White coached the junior varsity. Then he was promoted to secondary coach where he tutored a couple of talented defensive backs in LeRoy Irvin and Frank Wattelet.
Unfortunately, the Jayhawks of 1978 needed more players like Irvin and Wattelet. Kansas finished with a 1-10 record. Moore was fired and his staff, White included, went job hunting.
In the meantime, Jim Fuller, who had been on the East Carolina staff, had landed his first head coaching job at Jacksonville State, then an NCAA Division II school.
“Jim actually called me during the season and said he needed an offensive coordinator because Watson Brown had gone to Texas Tech,” White said. “I told him I might be available because we thought we were going to be fired, but that I was a secondary coach.”
Fuller — now Jacksonville State’s athletic director, incidentally — hired White anyway, and White served as the Gamecocks’ offensive coordinator for four seasons that featured two Gulf South Conference titles and two NCAA tournament appearances.
His success at Jacksonville earned White another NCAA Division I-A stint, this time at Oregon State where he spent two seasons before shifting to Southern Mississippi where he would spend his last three years as a football coach.
“We got fired even though Brett Favre was our quarterback,” White said. “That shows you how good of coaches we were.”
By now, somewhat disillusioned with college football coaching, White moved back to his hometown of Palo Alto, Calif., with the determination he would go into another business if he didn’t get a job at a tradition-rich football school.
And there White sat for six months, waiting for an opening, waiting for the phone to ring. Finally, it did. A man he had known in coaching while at East Carolina had joined the PGA of America office in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. His name? Jack White.
“Jack called and asked me where I’d been, that he’d been looking for me for six months to offer me a job with the PGA,” White said.
The PGA’s Jack White, currently head of the group’s ShotLink program, had one condition attached to the job offer.
“I said he had to go by John to prevent confusion,” Jack White told me by phone.
As if. The PGA may have had a Jack White and a John White for more than 15 years now, but many people think they’re talking to Jack when they’re actually talking to John or vice versa. Jack, for instance, spent 15 minutes talking on the phone this week to a Jacksonville State official who thought he was talking to John.
I talked to both Whites and I’m pretty sure I knew which one I was talking to. Then again …
— Sports editor Chuck Woodling can be reached at 832-7147.
While in Lawrence, he was Jack White. Now he is known as John “Coach” White. That’s so they won’t confuse him with Jack White, the man who hired him.
As I was going to St. Ives, I met … no, this isn’t a riddle. It’s the story of the only man who has ever coached football at both Kansas University and Jacksonville (Ala.) State.
Never heard of him? I thought so. But you might find Jack, er, John “Coach” White’s story interesting. I mean, he’s the only guy I know who switched careers from football to golf.
From 1976 to ’78, White was a member of Bud Moore’s football cadre on Mount Oread. He had been a graduate assistant at East Carolina when Moore offered him his first full-time job at Kansas in ’76.
“Kansas … all you normally do is fly over it, I thought,” White said in recalling that moment when I reached him in Raleigh, N.C., the other day.
White was in Raleigh because he’s the director of player relations for the PGA Champions Tour. In fact, he has been a PGA of America staffer since 1987, but more on that later.
White arrived in Lawrence on a Sunday and went immediately to the KU football office. He was 25 years old and eager to go to work. But Carole Hadl, the football office secretary, didn’t believe him.
“I’ll never forget that,” White told me. “Carole thought I was a recruit. She was worried I had missed my ride out of town.”
White had been on the football team at Cal Santa Barbara, but the California school dropped the sport while he was enrolled. Yet he stayed at UCSB, graduated, then landed that grad aide post at East Carolina.
During his first two years at KU, White coached the junior varsity. Then he was promoted to secondary coach where he tutored a couple of talented defensive backs in LeRoy Irvin and Frank Wattelet.
Unfortunately, the Jayhawks of 1978 needed more players like Irvin and Wattelet. Kansas finished with a 1-10 record. Moore was fired and his staff, White included, went job hunting.
In the meantime, Jim Fuller, who had been on the East Carolina staff, had landed his first head coaching job at Jacksonville State, then an NCAA Division II school.
“Jim actually called me during the season and said he needed an offensive coordinator because Watson Brown had gone to Texas Tech,” White said. “I told him I might be available because we thought we were going to be fired, but that I was a secondary coach.”
Fuller — now Jacksonville State’s athletic director, incidentally — hired White anyway, and White served as the Gamecocks’ offensive coordinator for four seasons that featured two Gulf South Conference titles and two NCAA tournament appearances.
His success at Jacksonville earned White another NCAA Division I-A stint, this time at Oregon State where he spent two seasons before shifting to Southern Mississippi where he would spend his last three years as a football coach.
“We got fired even though Brett Favre was our quarterback,” White said. “That shows you how good of coaches we were.”
By now, somewhat disillusioned with college football coaching, White moved back to his hometown of Palo Alto, Calif., with the determination he would go into another business if he didn’t get a job at a tradition-rich football school.
And there White sat for six months, waiting for an opening, waiting for the phone to ring. Finally, it did. A man he had known in coaching while at East Carolina had joined the PGA of America office in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. His name? Jack White.
“Jack called and asked me where I’d been, that he’d been looking for me for six months to offer me a job with the PGA,” White said.
The PGA’s Jack White, currently head of the group’s ShotLink program, had one condition attached to the job offer.
“I said he had to go by John to prevent confusion,” Jack White told me by phone.
As if. The PGA may have had a Jack White and a John White for more than 15 years now, but many people think they’re talking to Jack when they’re actually talking to John or vice versa. Jack, for instance, spent 15 minutes talking on the phone this week to a Jacksonville State official who thought he was talking to John.
I talked to both Whites and I’m pretty sure I knew which one I was talking to. Then again …
— Sports editor Chuck Woodling can be reached at 832-7147.
