Allan Hancock College
1957-1982
The late Joe White is credited with pioneering the Allan Hancock College intercollegiate athletics program. His thoughtful leadership managed the present and molded the future of an athletic program that continues to provide educational opportunity for its student participants and a positive profile for the institution. A legendary figure in the sporting annals of Santa Maria, Joe White passed away at the age of 76 in 2001. He was the father of longtime Allan Hancock College men's basketball coach Bobby White.
White served as the Allan Hancock College director of athletics from 1957 through 1982 and was also a biology instructor at the college. During his 25 years of intercollegiate athletic leadership, he oversaw tremendous growth in the department, including the successful advent of women's sport teams in the 1970s.
Under Joe's direction, the program produced a tremendous record of competitive excellence, as evidenced by six of the institution's nine state championships having been won on his watch: the Orange Show Bowl Football Championship in 1960, Men's Basketball in 1974, Baseball in 1972, Men's Cross Country in 1978 and Men's Track and Field in 1966 and 1967. At the conference level, his program collected 44 team-sport titles, including AHC's first-ever women's-sport championship in basketball in 1976.
Coach White was able to lure great coaching talent to Allan Hancock College. His staff of coaches was always the strength of his program. Basketball coaches Sam Vokes, Bob McCutcheon and Dick Valentine added to the great Bulldog cage tradition established by Bill Bertka, who has gone on to an illustrious coaching career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and Coach White himself. On the gridiron, he fostered a tradition of excellence by bringing to the college eventual National Football League coaching giants John Madden and Ernie Zampeze, as well as local success stories Barney Eames and Tom Hawkins. On the baseball diamond, John Osborne started his legendary 31-year coaching career under Joe White and went on to replace Joe in the athletic director's position. In track and field, he hired Jack Cook, who guided the Bulldogs to two state titles before moving on to a highly successful career at the University of Nevada. Ray Kring followed Coach Cook and maintained a national elite status in both cross country and track for another 15 years.
Beyond the program's success on the court, field and track, Joe White inspired a reputation and standing tradition of integrity, sportsmanship, and efficient operation for Allan Hancock College athletics. A beloved father and family man who provided a tremendous contribution to the community he served, Joe White is forever memorialized in the naming of Allan Hancock College's beautiful new gymnasium, which underwent a total remodeling in 2003.