Early Years
A graduate of Westwood High School in Mesa, Arizona, he didn't receive a lot of notice while being the starter at quarterback, because back then he was a better baseball prospect.
Frank Kush, then the football head coach at Arizona State University, helped convinced Bobby Winkles, the school's baseball coach, to sign White to a scholarship with the provision that he would also play punter for the football team. During those early years Kush gave him a chance to improve his skills as a quarterback, which eventually would lead him to become the starter midway through his sophomore season, ending up throwing for 6 touchdowns in a game against the University of New Mexico.
White went on to have a stellar career as a quarterback and punter, compiling a 33-4 record, winning 3 Fiesta Bowls, setting 7 NCAA passing records and being named All-America in 1973, when he lead the nation's second rated total offense. He finished with 6,717 passing yards, 64 touchdowns, 42 interceptions and averaged 41.7 yards per punt.
Besides having his jersey retired, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, the State of Arizona Sports Hall of Fame and the Arizona State University Hall of Fame. In 2000 he was named Arizona Athlete of the Century by the Arizona Republic.
Read more about this topic: Danny White
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or years:
“The shift from the perception of the child as innocent to the perception of the child as competent has greatly increased the demands on contemporary children for maturity, for participating in competitive sports, for early academic achievement, and for protecting themselves against adults who might do them harm. While children might be able to cope with any one of those demands taken singly, taken together they often exceed children’s adaptive capacity.”
—David Elkind (20th century)
“Bourbon’s the only drink. You can take all that champagne stuff and pour it down the English Channel. Well, why wait 80 years before you can drink the stuff? Great vineyards, huge barrels aging forever, poor little old monks running around testing it, just so some woman in Tulsa, Oklahoma can say it tickles her nose.”
—John Michael Hayes (b.1919)