CONTRIBUTED BY
AU ATHLETICS
AUBURN —
Auburn remembers men’s basketball all-time career assists leader Gerald White (1965-2023), who passed away on Tuesday, April 25, at the age of 58.
White, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound starting point guard at the time, played for the Tigers from 1984-87. He was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks in the seventh round of the 1987 NBA Draft. He was teammates with Charles Barkley, Chris Morris, the late Jeff Moore, Gary Godfrey, the late Frank Ford and Mike Jones.
He remains the school-record holder with 624 career assists leading the Tigers in the category three-straight seasons as a sophomore, junior and senior. White also ranks eighth all-time in career steals (164) including a team-leading 60 during the 1984-85 season.
The Tigers were ranked as high as No. 5 in the country during his four-year career on the Plains. They also reached the NCAA Tournament all four seasons winning a SEC Tournament title in 1985 and making it all the way to the Elite Eight in 1986. White holds the school’s NCAA Tournament record for career assists (63) in 10 tournament games played.
A 1988 Auburn graduate with a bachelor’s degree in education, White coached for nearly two decades serving as an assistant at Augusta State, UT Chattanooga, Georgia State and VCU. He was inducted into the Tiger Trail of Auburn and was honored as a SEC Legend in 2014.
“Gerald White was the leading scorer in the state of Georgia and attended the same high school as Pat Dye,” said Former Auburn Head Coach Sonny Smith. “We recruited him to Auburn to become a point guard, instead of a shooting guard, and he ended up starting all four years. He didn’t have a selfish bone in his body and made everyone around him better. During that time, we went to the NCAA Tournament every year including the Elite Eight. He was a very good student and knew all along he would be a coach.
“He was recruited to Auburn by my former assistant coach, Mack McCarthy, and later joined Mack on his staff at Chattanooga and VCU. Gerald never met a stranger. He was totally committed to coaching and giving back to kids in his hometown of Augusta. He was a successful recruiter and recruited kids that were like him. My condolences to his family and everyone he impacted throughout his life.”
Originally from Augusta, Georgia, White played at Richmond Academy and was named Georgia’s 4A Player of the Year by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution during his senior campaign averaging 28.3 points and eight assists per game. He was also selected as one of the nation’s Top 30 players by Basketball Weekly and toured Germany in the spring of 1983 as a member of the U.S. All-Star Team.
White is survived by his family including his children, Jared and Jala White ‘17, and older brother, Mike White, a former defensive lineman for the Cleveland Browns and Seattle Seahawks. Memorial services for White in Augusta are pending.