Brothers Reunited: Tennessee-FAU Matchup Brings White Brothers Together in the Sweet 16

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The White family group chat isn’t very active right now. Nobody is arguing or taking sides, but there are some messages wishing good luck before this important basketball game. All of them realize the level of competition they’re in because it’s something their family has experienced for their whole lives – it comes with being part of the “First Family of college sports.”

This Thursday night, brothers and Athletic Directors Danny White from the fourth-seeded team Tennessee (25-10) and Brian White from the ninth-seeded team Florida Atlantic (33-3) will have their teams go head to head. Even though it’s pretty awkward for them, they can’t avoid this matchup.

Brian said “It’s not ideal but it happens sometimes.” Danny added “We usually talk trash about everything else except our teams competing against each other.”

Their dad, Kevin White, who has worked as an administrator at many colleges including Tulane, Arizona State, Notre Dame and Duke. The two of them understand the consequences of both winning and losing a game. Whichever one wins the game at Madison Square Garden will be facing off against their brother or sister.

Danny White said that those games are very important for them and getting into the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight is a big deal. He added that these moments will stay with them forever, so it’s too important to take lightly.

The White family had five kids and three of them became college athletic administrators. Brian was hired by FAU in 2018 after working at Missouri for several years. Danny went to Tennessee after spending many years at Buffalo and Central Florida, Mariah Chappell is currently an assistant Athletic Director at Southern Methodist University.

Maureen Treadway is the oldest daughter and she teaches English at a high school in Arizona. The oldest son, Mike, just ended his first year as basketball coach in Georgia after previously doing it for seven years in Florida.

The White family is very close. Not only do their 5 siblings text each other all the time, Mike and Danny got condos near the beach which are located one floor above and below where their parents live when they go for vacations. Danny wanted to hire his first head coach at his job so he asked his Dad to get him in contact with Coach Mike Krzyzewski from Duke University and eventually ended up hiring Bobby Hurley at Buffalo. Brian was also looking for a basketball coach at Florida Atlantic and this time, he asked Mike’s staff from Florida who then gave him Dusty May as an option.

Brian White said it’s important to talk with people we care about because they have our best interest and can give us honest advice, even if we don’t like the advice.

The White family get together twice a year, usually at Christmas and the Fourth of July. They are five siblings with 16 kids between them, and one of them might work in sports sometime in the future.

Kevin and Jane started as teachers and track coaches in New Port Richey, Florida. Next, they traveled around the US while working on higher levels of coaching. Kevin was a coach at Southeast Missouri State and Central Michigan University. Finally he became the athletic director (AD) at Loras College, which is a school in Iowa that competes on Division III level athletics.

Kevin and Jane had a plan. They wanted to create something that would last, both for them and their children. So, they drew up the idea of what their three houses should look like at a restaurant one night and took it to an architect so he could make it come alive. These three homes were built with nearly the same floorplan and situated in Kenner, Louisiana, South Bend, Indiana and Durham, North Carolina – which is where they still live today!

Mike White said it was a little bit creepy that the pictures from their childhood homes were in the same places at the Durham house. Brian White then added that even though he had never lived there, it felt like his childhood home when he went there. It’s really cool, he said, since everyone knows which room different memories were made in–even if it wasn’t the actual house.

Two of their homes both had the same basketball hoop installed in the driveways. Danny White remembered that it was always full of exciting moments with lots of trash-talking, as well as occasional bloody noses and skinned knees.

Before their Sweet 16 match, Danny and Brian will have a short meet up and after it is over, they’ll send each other texts to either congratulate or console each other. In the meantime, this is what they can do to show each other some friendly rivalry.

“I think our parents are secretly supporting the Owls,” Brian said. “Tennessee shouldn’t have won against Duke.”

Danny replied, “Everyone else in the family seems to be backing orange.”