Harold White, USC’s first African-American football coach, will be at the Leadership and Service Center to have an intimate discussion about his life and taking on the coaching position as part of the Community Pathfinders series.
The discussion series aims to connect students with locals, USC alumni and faculty who are willing to speak about their experiences. Kelsey Johansen, a graduate assistant for the Carolina Leadership Initiative and the Leadership and Service Center, helps current students to understand how they can use their education.
“By welcoming alumni into the series students are able to see where an education from USC can take them and some insight into the journey of someone else,” Johansen said.
White was recommended to speak at the series after a profile was done on his career by the Athletics Department.
“Following the President’s Leadership Dialogue with Mark Emmert we wanted to provide an opportunity to keep the conversation surrounding Leadership in Sports, and the impact sports can have on a community, Mr. White seemed like a great opportunity to do that,” Johansen said.
White was hired by head football coach Paul Dietzel as a graduate assistant in 1971 at the age of 31. He was the first African-American coach at South Carolina before he became an academic counselor in 1973. White expressed fond memories of his time at USC when he retired in 2007.
“The joy of my career with the University of South Carolina Athletics Department was that I had the opportunity to help so many youngsters — black, white and whatever other color it might be,” White said at the time of his retirement.
White served as the senior associate athletics director for academic support and student services and the director of the Carolina’s Wellness Program for a period of time and was awarded prestigious awards such as the Lan Hewlett Award by the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics. He was inducted into the USC Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009 after retiring in 2007.
Then-athletics director Eric Hyman said at the time of White's retirement that: "This is a huge loss for Carolina Athletics. Harold White has been a pillar of the department for many years ... He will be missed tremendously."