University of Tennessee, Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman introduced Danny White as the Vols’ next athletics director Jan. 22.
Plowman detailed UT’s hiring process with White.
“I want to give you all some insight into how this all transpired over the last few days,” Plowman said. “We retained Parker Executive search firm on Saturday and they began to compile a list of potential AD candidates. I spent Monday evening and all-day Tuesday taking calls and talking to different groups inside athletics such as head coaches, senior leadership teams, student-athlete advisory council, the faculty-senate committee on athletics and groups of donors, just try to try to find out what we should be looking for in our next athletic director. We were confident that the position would be attractive and attract robust interest. We were immediately proven correct. Our search firm presented us with an impressive and diverse list of prospects, but it was clear who the top candidate was. It was Danny White.
“We moved swiftly, and I had my first conversation with Danny on Tuesday night over Zoom during the Tennessee-Florida basketball game actually, we both missed that. On Wednesday morning, president (Randy) Boyd, chairman (John) Compton and I had a 90-minute Zoom meeting with Danny, and that evening, the three of us flew to Orlando to meet with Danny and his lovely family. We were blown away by his ideas, his character and his commitment to both academic and athletic success.”
White comes to Tennessee after serving as athletics director at Buffalo (2012-15) and UCF (2015-2021).
“Danny is a leader, an innovator, a builder,” Plowman said. “He comes from an extraordinary family of college athletics administrators, including the renowned and respected athletic director at Duke University, his dad Kevin White.”
His father, Kevin White, is the athletics director at Duke. His brother, Brian White, is the vice president and director of athletics at Florida Atlantic. Mike White, his other brother, is the men’s basketball head coach at Florida. His sister, Mariah Chappell, is the assistant athletics director for administration at SMU.
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