Gene White, a legendary figure in Indiana basketball lore and as both an athlete and coach at Franklin College, passed away on Saturday, Jan. 24. He was 90 years old.

White is a member of Franklin College's Athletic Hall of Fame, having been enshrined in 2006. He was also inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024. But his legacy goes well beyond his tangible accomplishments in the gym or out on the field.

"This world will not be the same without Gene White," said Brenda Ferguson '95, who played three seasons on the hardwood for White and now works as the assistant director of development services and communications. "My world will not be the same. I was blessed — so incredibly blessed — to have had him as such an important part of my life. He was the most humble, loyal, down-to-earth, wisecracking man I ever met. He never forgot about his players and he championed them throughout their lives."
 
Born on Dec. 11, 1935, White had already earned statewide notoriety before coming to Franklin, having played center on the famed 1954 Milan High School state championship team that inspired the movie "Hoosiers." White was named to the all-sectional, all-regional, all-semistate and all-state finals teams during that tourney run.
 
As a Grizzly, White was the starting catcher for the baseball team, earning all-conference honors in 1957 and 1958; he also lettered in basketball as a freshman in 1954-55. A proud member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, he graduated in 1958 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics.

After receiving his degree, White served with the Army Signal Corps in Monmouth, New Jersey from October 1958 to August 1960. According to his wife, Anita, he did research with German scientists who fought under Hitler and worked on the atomic clock that is now used all over the world.
 
White began his coaching career at Milan Junior High School in 1960, where he also taught math and physics. In 1963, he began teaching and coaching cross country for Batesville High School, where he also taught math and physics. He was named Batesville's athletic director in 1965.
 
In 1970, White returned to Milan as a teacher, coach and athletic director. He was the varsity boys basketball coach at Milan from 1982-85. He then moved back to Franklin, teaching mathematics and serving as the assistant girls basketball coach at Franklin Community High School from 1985-87.
 
In 1987, White came back to Franklin College as the women's basketball coach. He continued in that role through the 1993-94 season. The Grizzlies won conference titles in the last three of those seasons. White's team completed the 1991-92 campaign as runner-up in the NAIA District 21 Tournament with a 23-6 record — and in 1993-94, he became the first coach to guide a Franklin College team in any sport to a postseason tournament in NCAA Division III.
 
White, who retired from high school teaching in 1997, returned to the Grizzlies' head coaching job for three more seasons (1998-2001). During his second stint, Franklin was the HCAC tournament runner-up all three years and shared the league's regular-season crown in 2000.
 
All told, White was a four-time conference coach of the year, winning those honors across three different leagues: 1992 and 1993 in the HCW, 1994 in the ICAC and 1999 in the HCAC. White is the second winningest women's basketball coach in Griz history with a 158-95 record (a .625 winning percentage).

Jodi Graber Berry, a 1994 graduate and a fellow FC Hall of Fame inductee, credits White with changing the course of her life.

"I was set on playing volleyball at the University of Indianapolis," she recalled, "but Gene's sincerity and belief in me pulled me toward Franklin College. He didn't just recruit players; he built a family. He saw the potential in 'his girls' that we didn't always see in ourselves, and he led with a quiet strength that commanded respect without ever needing to demand it."

Ditto for Lisa Mahan, who played for White as a senior in 1987-88, came back to campus a year later as an assistant (and eventually head) coach and has worked at her alma mater ever since.

"Would I have come back to Franklin College and spent the rest of my working career there if not for basketball? Probably not," Mahan shared. "So thank you, Gene, for putting me on that path."

The Whites were members of the Franklin College Horizon Society for Planned Giving, and Gene White also served his alma mater as a member of the Alumni Council. He received the Outstanding Volunteer Award in 2006 for his contributions to the college. 
 
Gene White is survived by his wife Anita as well as their three children (Pamela Green, Paula Taggart and William White), seven grandchildren (Jessica Laguna, Logan Sutton, Kelsey Green, Harrison Green, Matthew White, Ashley White and Anthony White) and seven great-grandchildren (Kat and Gemi Laguna, Krystal and Dakota Huff, Ava White and Emersyn and Evelyn Harman).