Mike White, a Bay Area native who starred at Cal and coached the Bears, Stanford, the Raiders and the 49ers among others during his six decades in football, died on Sunday. He was 89.
The University of Illinois athletic department announced the news of White’s passing.
White was a prominent branch on the coaching trees of Bill Walsh and Dick Vermeil, two other Northern California natives. But his ties to Bay Area football stretch to the early 1950s when White was a multi-sport star at Acalanes High. He went to Cal, where he played receiver and in 1957 was voted team captain.
Immediately after graduation, White joined a Cal coaching staff that would later include Walsh. After six seasons at Cal, White went to arch rival Stanford to join a staff that included Vermeil. In 1972, White was offered the head coaching job at both schools, and returned to his alma mater.
First as an assistant and then as head coach, White was credited with developing some of Cal’s greatest quarterbacks – Craig Morton, Steve Bartkowski and Joe Roth. The Bears went 35-30-1 in six seasons under White, including two eight-win seasons. In 1975, Cal led the nation in offense and tied UCLA for the Pac-8 regular season title. The Bears were ranked 14th in the final AP poll, but didn’t participate in a bowl – the Bruins got the Rose Bowl bid by winning the head-to-head matchup.
White was fired at Cal following the 1977 season, but landed on the 49ers coaching staff and was the offensive line coach on Walsh’s first 49ers team.
In 1980, White was named the head coach at Illinois. He led the Fighting Illini from 1980-87 and finally got a chance to play in the Rose Bowl in 1984. White’s Illinois teams played in three bowls in all, including the 1982 Liberty Bowl against Alabama in Bear Bryant’s final game as a coach.
White resigned following the 1987 season amid an NCAA investigation for recruiting violations. White returned to coaching in 1990, joining Art Shell’s Los Angeles Raiders staff as the quarterbacks coach.
White succeeded Shell as the Raiders’ head coach in 1995. White’s two-year stint with the Raiders was remembered mostly for being the first back in Oakland after 12 years in L.A., a 8–2 start followed by six straight losses to the end the 1995 season, and, after going 7-9 in 1996, he was fired by Al Davis on Christmas Eve.
The next season White joined Vermeil, who was lured out of retirement by the St. Louis Rams, and three seasons later retired after helping the Rams beat Tennessee in Super Bowl XXXIV. But when Vermeil was hired by the Chiefs, White served as Kansas City’s director of football administration from 2001 to 2005.
White also is credited, along with former Dallas Cowboys presided Tex Schramm, with the NFL begin to get a foothold in Europe by helping establish the World League in 1989.