Mike White obit

Mike White, Head Coach of Cal's Powerful 1975 Squad, Dies

Mike White died Sunday. He was the head coach of the 1975 Cal football team that finished tied for first place in the Pac-8, one of just two times since 1957 that Cal finished first in the conference. 

He was not on the list.

Mike White, a Cal graduate who was the Golden Bears’ head football coach when Cal tied for the Pac-8 title in 1975, died on Sunday, according to the Illinois Athletics website.

 White was 89. No cause of death was provided.

He had 16 years experience as a head coach, including stints at the University of California, Berkeley (1972–1977), the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (1980–1987) and the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) (1995–1996).

White played four sports while he was a student at Cal, and he was captain of the Bears 1957 football team while playing wide receiver. He graduated from Cal’s business school.

He began his coaching career the next year as a Cal football assistant coach, serving in that role from 1958 through 1963. He helped Craig Morton develop into an NFL quarterback while at Cal.

In 1972 White was offered the head coaching job at both Stanford and Cal, and he chose his alma mater. He served as the Bears head coach for six seasons from 1972 through 1977 and finished with a 34-31-4 record in Berkeley.

The Bears struggled in his first two years as head coach, going 3-8 in 1972 and 4-7 the next year.

However, White turned the Cal program around starting in 1974, when the Bears went 7-3-1 overall, including 4-2-1 in the Pac-8, finishing tied for third in the conference standings.

Cal became a national power in 1975, when running back Chuck Muncie and quarterback Joe Roth helped White’s team finish 8-3 overall and 6-1 in the Pac-8. The Bears finished tied for first place with UCLA in the final Pac-8 standings, and that remains one of just two times since 1957 that Cal has claimed a conference title in football.  The other time was 2006, when Jeff Tedford’s Cal team tied USC for the Pac-10 championship.

However, in 1975, UCLA was named the conference’s representative in the Rose Bowl because it had defeated Cal during the regular season. Cal finished the season ranked 14th but did not go to a bowl game.

The 1975 Bears led the nation in total offense, averaging 459 yards per game, and Muncie finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting.

Cal slipped to 5-6 in 1976, but bounced back in 1977 with a 7-4 record.  White was dismissed by Cal following the 1977 season amid allegations of recruiting violations.

Besides developing Morton and Roth, White helped mold Steve Bartkowski into a quarterback who would become the No. 1 overall pick in the 1975 NFL draft following a standout 1974 season at Cal.

White later became the head coach at Illinois, and led the Fighting Illini to the Rose Bowl in the 1983 season. He was the Illinois head coach for eight seasons (1980 to 1987) and had a 47-41-3 record for the Illini, taking them to three bowl games.

White was also the head coach of the Oakland Raiders in 1995 and 1996, going 8-8 in 1995 and 7-9 in 1996.

He coached a team led by Joe Roth, Chuck Muncie and Wesley Walker to the Pac-8 co-championship—the school's first conference title in 18 years.

White moved to the University of Illinois Fighting Illini in 1980. He succeeded Gary Moeller, who in three seasons at Illinois finished no higher than eighth in the Big Ten Conference. White quickly turned around the Illinois football program, posting a winning season in only his second year. In 1982, he led the Illini to the Liberty Bowl, the school's first bowl appearance since the 1964 Rose Bowl. The 1982 Liberty Bowl was also notable as the final game coached by University of Alabama head coach Bear Bryant. In 1983, Illinois won its first Big Ten title in 20 years with an overall record of 10–1, including a 9–0 conference record, and played in the 1984 Rose Bowl. It also marked the first time since 1967 that neither Michigan nor Ohio State won at least a share of the conference title. White was honored for his team's achievements by being named UPI Coach of the Year. The 1983 Illinois team is the only team in Big Ten history to beat each of the other conference teams in a single season. White also led the Fighting Illini to the 1985 Peach Bowl, which they lost to Army 31–29. In eight seasons at Illinois, White's teams had a combined record of 47–41–3, for a winning percentage of .533. Along the way, White coached future NFL quarterbacks Dave Wilson, Tony Eason, and Jack Trudeau, and record-setting wide receiver David Williams. White resigned as Illinois coach after the 1987 season due to recruiting violations.

On April 27, 1990, White was hired to serve as quarterbacks coach of the Los Angeles Raiders. He later coached the offensive line in 1993.

White was hired to replace Art Shell as coach of the team on February 2, 1995. In the first season for the team back in Oakland after 12 years in Los Angeles, the Raiders rocketed to an 8–2 start. But the team went into a nosedive, losing their final six games (with four of the six losses being without Jeff Hostetler at quarterback due to injury) to finish 8–8.

With a "gourmet-variety offense" based on the intent to throw short, the Raiders finished with a 7–9 record in 1996. White was fired by the Raiders on Christmas Eve, being given the news by Bruce Allen though Al Davis was involved in the decision.

White was on the coaching staff of the Rams from 1997 to 1999, including a Super Bowl victory at the conclusion of the '99 season. White later served as the Director of Football Administration for the Kansas City Chiefs.

 

Coaching career (HC unless noted)

1958–1963      California (DL)

1964–1971      Stanford (OC/OL)

1972–1977      California

1978–1979      San Francisco 49ers (OL)

1980–1987      Illinois

1990–1994      Los Angeles Raiders (QB/OL)

1995–1996      Oakland Raiders

1997–1999      St. Louis Rams (OA)

Head coaching record

Overall            82–71–4 (college)

15–17 (NFL)

Bowls  0–3

Accomplishments and honors

Championships

Pac-8 (1975)

Big Ten (1983)

Super Bowl XXXIV champion (1999)

Awards

Sporting News College Football COY (1983)

Walter Camp Coach of the Year (1983)

Big Ten Coach of the Year (1983)