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White is the advice behind the advisors
Emily White has been guiding USC officials for four decades
Emily White has been administrative assistant to nine athletics directors at the University of South Carolina, starting with Paul Dietzel in 1967.
Gerry Melendez/gmelendez@thestate.com
Posted on 09.16.08
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USC Hall of Fame
What: USC Athletic Hall of Fame induction dinner
When: Thursday; reception at 6 p.m., dinner at 7
Where: Seawell’s
Tickets: $40; call (803) 691-8447
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USC Hall Inductees
Henry Martin | He played basketball in the 1942-43 season then finished his career (1946-49) after the war. He was the first South Carolina player to score 1,000 points, and he highlighted his career by scoring 32 points in a victory against Clemson in ’49.
Brian Winters | He lettered in basketball for coach Frank McGuire from 1972-74 and, in a career hampered by injuries, the long-range shooter scored 1,079 points. A first-round draft pick of the L.A. Lakers, he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Winters had his jersey retired by the NBA club.
Clarence Williams | The late Williams lettered in football at USC from 1974-76, rushing for 2,311 yards, including eight 100-yard games. He was a member of the Gamecocks’ “Hall of Fame” backfield of 1975, joining fellow running back Kevin Long and quarterback Jeff Grantz. Williams and Long each rushed for more than 1,000 yards in ’75. Williams played for the Chargers and Redskins from 1977-1983.
Collin Mackie | He lettered in football from 1987-90 and remains USC’s all-time leading scorer, racking up 330 points as a kicker. That total is 128 points better than the player in second place, Heisman winner George Rogers. Mackie had the two most productive seasons for field goals, booting 25 in 1987 and 19 the next season.
Carl Paulson | He earned All-America honors in golf in 1993. He won the Metro Conference individual championship in 1991 then topped that by being named the SEC player of the year in 1993. He also took medalist honors at the 1995 PGA Tour Qualifying School.
Josh Wolff | He played soccer at USC from 1995-97, scoring 21 goals with eight assists in 43 games. He was named as a freshman All-American by Soccer America in 1995, despite missing half the season with a broken collarbone. He has played professionally since 1998 and currently plays for the Kansas City MLS team.
Brad Snyder | He competed in track and field for the Gamecocks from 1996-99. As a shot putter and discus thrower, Snyder was a seven-time SEC champion and three-time NCAA champion. He earned eight All-America honors and was a three-time Olympian for Canada, appearing in the 1996, 2000, and 2004 Olympics.
Emily White | She has assisted football coaches, baseball coaches and athletic directors at USC since 1967. Considered the matriarch and “first lady” of USC athletics, she always has been a dedicated professional in carrying out her duties.
— From Staff Reports
NOT LONG AFTER Eric Hyman reported to work three years ago as South Carolina’s athletics director, he dismissed the advice of his administrative assistant, Emily White.
A few days later, Hyman arrived at his office, head hung low, and was greeted by White.
“I told you so,” White said, wagging her finger at Hyman.
Ever since, Hyman has heeded all advice from White, who will be inducted Thursday into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame along with seven others. The others will be honored for their athletic achievements. White will be recognized for her undying loyalty to the athletics department she so dearly loves.
White has been advising athletes and athletics directors for 42 years. Since her first day on the job on Jan. 3, 1967, White has seen 10 athletics directors — including three at one time — pass through her office. USC has employed eight football coaches, seven men’s basketball coaches and scores of other coaches during her stay in the Rex Enright Athletic Center.
“As each one comes through, they’ve got to have someone who knows the ropes and helps them through. Emily has been that person,” says Bill Boyte, who nominated White for the Hall of Fame as a member of the committee. He recalls being greeted by White when he arrived from Camden as a freshman football player in 1968.
Over the years, White’s title gradually has changed from secretary to administrative assistant to the athletics director. Her duties, which on any given day range from receptionist to counselor to letter writer to confidant, seldom have changed.
“If someone thinks her job is strictly clerical, then they really don’t know the person and her qualifications,” says Bob Marcum, USC athletics director in the early 1980s and now the athletics director at Marshall.
White, a “Carolina fan since I could walk,” attended football games as a youngster with her father and listened to other games on the radio. She graduated from Brookland-Cayce High in 1956 and attended USC for one year before joining the work force. She found herself unemployed in 1966 when the insurance company she worked for went out of business.
A notice in the USC personnel office caught her eye, and when she was hired to be Paul Dietzel’s secretary, she says it was “one of the happiest days of my life.”
Before you attempt to figure White’s age, consider that Hyman has never asked. He says he is afraid to get an answer that might signal White is ready for retirement, which she is not.
She has been at USC long enough to remember when women’s sports did not operate under the athletics department umbrella. When she began at USC, White was responsible for assisting coaches in all sports. She recalls one eager assistant football coach who insisted on sending 20-25 recruiting letters every day of the year, letters she was required to type — pre-computer days — individually. The coach was Lou Holtz.
“It’s big business now,” White says of college athletics. “Then, you could just pick up the phone, order something on campus and have it delivered in 15 minutes. Now, you have to file a request order and it might take weeks to get it.”
With the work has come much reward, White says. She twice has traveled with teams to Hawaii. Yet she says no trip or pay raise or bonus comes close to matching the thrill of USC experiencing success in athletics.
She says there was no greater time to be part of the USC team than when it won ACC championships in football in 1969 and men’s basketball in 1971. The experience of greeting those teams at the airport upon returning from a road trip lives with her. George Rogers winning the Heisman Trophy and USC’s many trips to the College World Series also are among her favorite memories.
Then there were the lows. Joe Morrison’s death. The football steroids scandal. Bobby Cremins’ decision to back out as USC’s new basketball coach and return to Georgia Tech. During those times, and following difficult losses, White long ago accepted the role of counselor to USC’s grieving fans.
Her least-favorite calls have come from those who claim she does not realize how deeply they hurt when USC loses.
“I do,” she says. “I’m a fan, and it’s my livelihood, too.”
Following USC’s stunning loss to Coppin State in the opening round of the 1997 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, White reported one call to Columbia police.
“He said he was going to come down and make the Atlanta bombings look like child’s play,” White says. Police traced the call to New Jersey and an unhappy gambler.
Another rabid fan from Texas called White several times over the years to vent about USC’s poor coaching or its inadequate administration or its sub-par performances. Finally, the man showed up at White’s office one day with a bouquet of flowers. White says he had cleansed his soul, and she never heard from him again.
From the first day on the job to today, White says she has recognized the need for confidentiality in her work. For that reason, she will not compare one athletics director to another. She addressed the long-held rumor that basketball coach Frank McGuire had a hand in burning down the old Carolina Field House, only by saying, “I’ve heard that.”
She says she seldom passed along information about the athletics department, even to her husband, Lamar, who died in 2001.
“Some people would like to know and tell things,” White says. “I’ve always been one to keep it to myself and listen to others talk about something they didn’t know.”
For that reason alone, White managed to retain her job as Dietzel passed the athletics director’s job along to the threesome of Jim Carlen, McGuire and Bo Hagan. They handed it off to Dick Bestwick, then to Johnny Gregory, King Dixon, Mike McGee and finally to Hyman.
Hyman probably speaks for all of them when he says, “I love her to death.”
Listen to Morris Tuesday from 4-5 p.m. on ESPN Radio 93.1 FM.
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