Mike White, Millennium Hall of Fame

When Matt White first stepped inside Jeff Brinkley’s classroom at

Newport Harbor High, it didn’t take long for the teacher, also the

Sailors’ football coach, to figure out that he might want to get to know

his father.

The student’s dad, indeed, was o7 thef7 Mike White, the two-time

national collegiate coach of the year who grew from the “same football

family tree” as Bill Walsh and Dick Vermeil, Brinkley said.

Next thing you know, Brinkley meets with White at Coco’s on a spring

night and picks his brain. They’re diagraming plays on napkins. White, a

Balboa Island resident who was between jobs, suddenly became part of the

Newport Harbor coaching staff.

The Sailors went from 3-7 in 1988 to 9-3 and a berth in the CIF

Southern Section quarterfinals the following year, when White instilled

offensive concepts the program still uses today.

“There’s probably nothing worse than a parent getting involved when

their son’s there, but I’m glad I was able to contribute,” White said

from St. Louis, where he’s in his third year as assistant head coach for

the surging Rams under one of his best friends, Vermeil.

White, who worked with Vermeil when the two were assistant coaches at

Stanford in 1965, was probably the most welcomed parent to get involved

in the Long Gray Line’s history.

“For me, it was like a clinic every day,” Brinkley said of White, who

would later become head coach of the Oakland Raiders (1995-96).

White, former head coach at Cal and Illinois, coached his oldest son,

Chris, at Illinois in 1980, one of the career highlights for the

63-year-old White.

After his eight-year coaching stint at Illinois from 1980 to ‘87,

White moved his family to Newport Beach, and, eventually, was able to

coach his other son, Matt. “I’ll tell you, the year I spent with Brinkley

and his staff (in 1989) was really one of the most enjoyable in my

coaching career,” said White, who also worked for Mike Giddings’

professional scouting service in Newport Beach.

A former team captain in 1957 and two-way starting end for Cal’s

Golden Bears, White returned to his alma mater in 1972 when he became the

Bears’ head coach, turning around a program that had gone 50-79-3 since

the 1958 Rose Bowl. Cal went 34-31-1 under White, including a 27-16-1

record in his final four seasons (1974-77). In 1975, the Bears posted an

8-3 mark and White was voted NCAA Coach of the Year.

After Cal, White went to the San Francisco 49ers, serving as offensive

line coach and administrative assistant to Walsh, before taking over the

head coaching reins at Illinois.

Before White’s arrival, Illinois was 43-92-4 in the previous 14

autumns, and by 1981 the Fighting Illini rebounded to 7-4 and qualified

for the Rose Bowl after the ’83 campaign, when they finished 10-2,

averaged 34 points a game and became the first Big 10 Conference team to

defeat all nine conference opponents.

White, the NCAA Coach of the Year in 1983, was hired by the Raiders in

1990 as the quarterback coach, after injecting his offensive wisdom upon

Brinkley’s program. Before joining the then-LA Raiders, White and former

Dallas Cowboys President Tex Schramm were the two men most responsible

for coordinating the beginning of the World League for the NFL in 1989 --

now NFL Europe.

From 1990 to ‘92, White served as Al Davis’ quarterback coach, then

was offensive line coach in 1993-94, before taking over the helm in 1995.

In White’s first year, the Raiders would practice in LA, but play home

games in Oakland. The team opened the ’95 campaign 8-2, but then

quarterback Jeff Hostetler got hurt and the Raiders lost their final six

games. The next year, they finished 6-8 and White was “ushered out the

door.” He has been with the Rams since 1997.

“It’s been very rewarding the last couple of years, to see the success

(this year),” said White, whose Rams (6-0) were the NFL’s only unbeaten

team heading into Sunday’s game at Tennessee -- a marquee matchup in a

strange NFL season for the traditional powerhouses. “I’ve always enjoyed

being around programs that are built with a lot of hard work, and Newport

Harbor was that way when Jeff Brinkley built that program. And it was

that way at Cal and Illinois.”

White played football at Acalanes High near Walnut Creek in Northern

California, before attending Cal, where he also played basketball and

competed in track and field as a decathlete, placing second behind UCLA’s

Rafer Johnson in a couple of meets. “I was no serious threat (to

Johnson),” White said of the 1960 Olympic decathlon gold medalist.

In terms of coaching, White, today’s honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports

Hall of Fame, celebrating the millennium, said: “I think it’s in your

blood, whether it’s the high school level or college level or pro level.

It’s hard to leave it, because you’re getting so much satisfaction out of

what you’re doing.”

During the season, he and his wife, Marilyn, live in Clayton, Mo. They

have three grown children in daughter Carrie and sons Chris and Matt.

They have two grandchildren, Hannah and Noah.