On Monday, the University of Central Florida announced that athletic director Danny White has signed an amendment to his contract that will extend his contract and keep him in the same role for the “foreseeable future”.
“I’m honored to lead such a great athletic department, and I look forward to doing so into the future,” White said, per the official release. “We are committed to building a top 25, intercollegiate athletics department at UCF. To be sure, I remain grateful to President [John] Hitt for entrusting me with the leadership of this department. We couldn’t be more proud of what our amazing student-athletes, coaches, staff and supporters have accomplished over a fast and furious first 20 months, and I know we’ll continue to build on that success.”
White started his duties as athletic director in December 2015 after holding the same position from 2012 to 2015 at the University of Buffalo. White replaced interim athletic director Brad Stricklin.
In the 2016-17 athletic year, UCF had its most successful year ever for postseason appearances. Eleven of UCF’s 16 sports programs made postseason play.
During his first seven months at UCF, White hired head-football coach Scott Frost, head-men’s basketball coach Johnny Dawkins, head-women’s basketball coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson, men’s tennis coach John Roddick and head-baseball coach Greg Lovelady.
Frost improved an 0-12 team to 6-6 and took them to a bowl appearance. Both basketball teams made double-digit win improvements and made their respective National Invitation Tournaments. Roddick led his team to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2005. As for Lovelady, he helped the Knights win the American Athletic Conference regular-season title and make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012.
During White’s tenure, the Knights have seen a rise in donations, including the largest cash pledge ever by one alumnus in Knights history. Overall, there has been $13 million donated to the $25 million athletics-village vision. Other donations include a $1.5 million donation by John Euliano for renovations to the baseball stadium and a $1 million donation by Bob Garvy for a student-athlete nutrition center.
Not only have the successes of the athletics teams improved under White, but the academics for student-athletes have as well. Knights student-athletes have continued a streak of 19-straight semesters with a 3.0 GPA or better. More than 60 percent of the Knights posted a 3.0 or better in the recently completed spring semester, leading to a department-record 3.27 semester GPA.
UCF has an NCAA graduation success rate of 94 percent, up one percent from last year. The Knights’ 2016 GSR score of 93 percent was the best of any public NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision school for the third year in a row.
“I hired Danny two years ago because he understood that success starts with winning with integrity and student-athletes thriving in the classroom and because he had a strong history of hiring successful coaches,” Hitt said, per the official release. “Danny has exceeded my expectations in all of those areas while also leading athletics to its best year of philanthropy ever. Along with our fans and student-athletes, I look forward to seeing what Danny and his talented colleagues will achieve this year.”
For more on the Knights, follow Ryan Weiss on Twitter at @NDR_RyanWeiss.
