The Alamance County Sports Development Council honored Alan White, director of athletics at Elon, with the first Distinguished Service in Sports Award at its inaugural Sports Appreciation Luncheon at the Alamance Country Club Oct. 16.
The selection process for the award is dictated by the following criteria: visibility, service, impact, character,
professionalism and accomplishments.
White is currently in his 31st year in the athletics department and his 23rd year as its director. During his tenure,
the athletics program has maintained a strong tradition of success
while evolving from NAIA membership, through NCAA Division II, to the
current NCAA Division I affiliation.
The success of Elon teams during White’s career is highlighted by 12
conference Excellence Awards, including eight in a row from 1990-1997,
and four national championships. Also under his direction, Elon teams
have captured 53 conference titles and produced over 500 all-conference
players.
A 1962 graduate of Wake Forest University, where he was an All-ACC
halfback and the conference’s leading rusher, White first came to Elon
in 1964 as an assistant football coach and assistant professor of
physical education after earning a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
He moved to Mississippi State University in 1967, where he was a football
assistant. White earned his Ed.D. there while serving as an assistant
professor and later as chairman of the physical education department.
He was named Elon’s 19th athletics director in August of 1979.
White has served as president of the South Atlantic Conference and the National NAIA Athletics Directors Association. Well-respected by his peers, White was named NAIA District 26 Athletics Administrator of the Year five different times. He also was named the
NAIA National Athletics Administrator of the Year in 1989, and was inducted into that organization’s Hall of Fame in 1993.
The Alamance County Sports Development Council is a countywide
partnership directed by the Alamance County Area Chamber of Commerce
and Convention & Visitors Bureau. The mission of the Sports Development Council is to stimulate the social, recreation and economic benefits of sports to the county through the recruitment, marketing, coordination and support of community sporting events and activities.
-30-