Our ex-AD, Kevin White, was interviewed last month on a program called " Mapping Your Career: Duke's Kevin White." It can be seen online on Vimeo. About his career he says this: " This profession has been so good to me, I mean it's like I held up a Brink's truck." Obviously, he has made millions and he is held in high esteem at Duke, and has won various AD of the year awards in recent years.
But what about his time at ND?
Nobody has ever had a more disastrous effect on ND sports than he has. He was born in Amityville, NY in 1950, and has been "The Amityville Horror"
for ND. His " Reign Of Terror " ran from 2000-2008.
Consider his record in football:
1. Bob Davie: He foolishly gave him a contract extension and later admitted that he made " a bad read " on that decision. It cost millions in a contract buyout when Davie was fired.
2. George O'Leary: The Davie blunder was followed by hiring O'Leary and having to fire him a week later because of an untruthful resume that White failed to vent properly.
3. Ty Willingham: One of the first things that Fr. Jenkins did when he came in as President was to get rid of Willingham, who White hired and who was failing miserably. White tried to use the race card in Willingham's defense, but that was ridiculous. It was based on performance and not race. Willingham's disastrous record at his next stop, the University of Washington, amplified this. Once again, White had failed and it cost millions in a buyout.
4. Urban Meyer: Meyer was an assistant under Lou Holtz at ND and is on the record as saying that ND was his coaching " dream job." Nevertheless, Kevin White botched the hire. It would have been the hire of his life. ND football would have gone into orbit with Meyer at the helm. It was a devastating loss for ND. Instead, White gave us Charlie Weis.
5. Charlie Weis: White saved his worst for last. Once again, White made a bad hire. He was blinded by the fool's gold of a promising start and made one of the worst decisions in the history of ADs: He gave Weis a 10 year contract with a killer buyout. When Weis was fired, ND hemorrhaged millions for years to an unworthy, arrogant, failure of a coach.
Consider his basketball record:
1. Mike Brey: In 2000, White hired Brey from Delaware. While not as glaringly bad as his football hires, Brey has led ND to almost two decades of mediocrity in basketball. He has had three real good seasons out of nineteen. Not a very impressive record. This past season has been a disgrace. Brey looked pathetic on the sidelines in our last game against Louisville: a badly unshaven man with a pot belly in rumpled clothes looking frantic and lost. His signature end of game play since the days of Chris Thomas is to give the point guard the ball, let him go one on five, take too much time, fire up an unsuccessful, wild shot, and lose the game. Yet, he won't change! Mike will be 60 in three days. His departure is long overdue. Unfortunately, Jack Swarbrick took a page out of Kevin White's book and gave him a ten year deal with the usual lucrative buyout.
As if Kevin White's ND career at ND wasn't a big enough train wreck, he insulted us after Duke upset us in football in 2016 at ND stadium. He was given the game ball in the Duke locker room after the game, and he said that that moment was the proudest moment in his career. This is coming from a guy who prides himself so much on his Irish ancestry: He has dual Irish-American citizenship and is in the Irish-American Hall Of Fame. What a Notre Dame man! What an Irishman!
By the way, Kevin, if you feel like you robbed a Brink's truck, why not give Notre Dame some of your fortune to compensate for the millions that you squandered on buyouts for your incompetent hires?
So while Kevin White touts his own fame and fortune looking back on his long career as an AD, he should always remember that for Notre Dame, he truly is "The Amityville Horror."
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Nothing new with that, but shouldn`t the University be held accountable for keeping this slug around; for soo long in the first place? Shouldn`t that Jenkins have cleaned house and dumped both White and TW down the toilet and begin with a fresh start? Some of the initial hiring`s of the football coach`s are ok, it`s hit or miss, it`s those crazy extensions he gave out are what`s bad. Fatboy`s extension was the all-time blunder and the culmination in making ND look like desperate fools. With all that being said, it makes you wonder how those elitist rats in the front office; really give a hoot about Athletics at ND these days? This mess makes Lou Holtz look even more invincible; when he was there, he became bigger than the University and it pissed some of this newer regime in the front office off.
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Strong stuff...The cronyism is beyond category...Main reason I retired at 62...
He did....at ND where football is king, he proved incapable/incompetent of running a big time football program..I always will refer to him as the man who gave us Tyrone Willingham...At Duke, where basketball rules,and no one gives a hoot about football, his incompetence is masked by fact, coach K runs the entire basketball operation..He's as happy as a pig in sh*t, doing nothing with his feet up on desk, and making out the men's lacrosse schedule..
I retired at 63, you beat me out the door by a year...lol
If Kevin White is ever overcome with guilt by the damage that he did as the ND AD, and he wants to share some of the fortune that he got from holding up the Brink's truck, Fr. Jenkins should graciously accept his donation. Then, he should use it to build a campus statue to Kevin White that is interactive-- pigeon interactive!
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screw it up more than it was..