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Duke selects Notre Dame athletics director

May 31, 2008

Durham, N.C. — Duke spent two months searching for an athletic director to guide its woeful football team back to respectability. The Blue Devils found their man at one of the most storied programs in the sport.

Kevin White left Notre Dame to become Duke's AD on Saturday, jumping from one elite, private university to another. His new school has a powerhouse men's basketball team but a football team that has had 13 straight losing seasons.

"There's an interesting set of challenges and opportunities here that got me really excited," White said. "The skill set ... that I bring to this is probably in line with those respective challenges and opportunities. That's exciting to me. And to do it in an environment like this, this is a world-class institution with high aspirations athletically. It really doesn't get any better than this."

Notre Dame appointed Missy Conboy as its interim athletic director. The school said there is no timetable for a permanent replacement.

White will replace Joe Alleva, who was hired as LSU's athletic director in April after a decade of leading the Blue Devils' 26 sports programs.

"You're not coming to start Duke athletics. You're coming to build on everything great that's already here," university president Richard Brodhead said.

White had been at Notre Dame since 2000. He hired football coaches Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis, and hired former Duke assistant Mike Brey as the men's basketball coach.

"You can't get anybody better than him," basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "You get a chance to do that, the last part of my career, to get a chance to work with somebody like that, that's exciting for me, too. ... He is a national figure in intercollegiate athletics."

Under Alleva's watch, Duke claimed 44 Atlantic Coast Conference championships and six national titles, including the school's third and most recent crown in men's basketball in 2001.

"Joe said to me, 'I think it's in pretty good shape, Kevin, but there are some opportunities here,' and I can't agree more," White said.

Alleva oversaw Duke's athletic department during the debunked rape allegations against members of the men's lacrosse team in 2006, and recently hired David Cutcliffe to revive a football program that hasn't reached a bowl game since 1994, has had three straight 10-loss seasons and little to cheer since Steve Spurrier left for Florida two decades ago.

"Football at Duke, we've got to find a way to get the program back to where it was a number of years ago - too long ago," White said. "The first step, the right step, was to hire a high-quality coach ... that has a great Duke fit, and that's David Cutcliffe.

"I think the Duke football future is awfully bright, but it's going to take a lot of attention, a lot of hard work and ... I think we're all going to help David. David isn't going to be able to do it himself. That's my job, and everybody else's job at the university."

Brodhead and trustee Roy Bostock led the search committee that first enlisted White as a consultant for its search. He ultimately emerged as a candidate, meeting with Brodhead for 3 1/2 hours Wednesday and formally interviewing for the position earlier Saturday.

The committee unanimously selected White, who has connections to three of Duke's most prominent coaches: Brey is one of Coach K's former assistants; Cutcliffe coached White's son at Mississippi and the AD oversaw his hiring as one of Weis' assistants in 2005 before he abruptly resigned for health reasons; and White taught women's basketball coach Joanne P. McCallie in a graduate-level class at Maine.

White helped Notre Dame plan a $26 million renovation of the basketball arena and expand the school's nonrevenue sports. He and his wife were made honorary alumni three days before switching jobs.

But White was widely criticized by Irish fans because the football team hasn't won a national championship since 1988 - the longest stretch in school history - and some fans place much of the blame on him.

He gave Bob Davie a contract extension in 2000, then fired him after the next season. White replaced Davie with George O'Leary, who resigned after less than a week on the job after he admitted he had lied about his academic and athletic past. White's next hire was Willingham, who lasted just three years.

In all, the Irish football team had four winning seasons, three losing campaigns and one .500 finish during White's tenure.

The Irish were more successful off the football field. Brey led the Irish to five NCAA appearances in eight seasons and the women's basketball team has made 13-straight NCAA tournament appearances. The Irish won national championships in women's basketball in 2001, in fencing in 2003 and 2005, and in women's soccer in 2004. The college baseball team advanced to the College World Series final in 2002 and the hockey team made it to the NCAA finals for the first time this past April.

Conboy had been the deputy athletic director at Notre Dame the past three years and had worked in the Notre Dame athletics department since 1987. She played basketball for the Fighting Irish from 1979-82.

Of Notre Dame's 11 athletic directors, only two were not graduates of the school.

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AP Sports Writer Tom Coyne in South Bend, Ind., contributed to this report.