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Sports T White retires after 30 years at USC USC Sports Information Harold White, who has 30 years ol service with the University of South Car olina athletics program and has achievec national respect among collegiate ath letics academic circles, has announced his retirement from the department, ef fective next June. “I have had the opportunity to work with so many wonderful people at Car olina,” White said. “The joy has truly been being a part of the lives of so many student-athletes and having felt that I might have in some small way, played a role in their development. I'm thrilled by those who I see, those who call or just drop me a note. That says in a small way, 'thank you for being there.” . White has served USC primarily as an administrator, but first came to the university in 1971 as agradyate assistant football coach. Since 1993, he has headed up the ath letics program's academic support and student services areas and is currently a Senior Associate Athletics Director for the department. Under White's watch, USC's ath letics department graduation rate has risen to become the second highest in the SEC and three of the past four years, the foot ball team's graduation rate has ranked among the nation's top 15. Tire department's grade point aver age has climbed steadily, as well, reach ing an all-time high of 2.834 this past spring semester. “Harold White has been a valuable and faithful member of the Carolina ath letic family for four decades and the pos itive impact he has had on the lives of our student-athletes-is immeasurable,” said Mike McGee, director of athletics. “Harold has been devoted to the well being of the student-athletes and his com mitment to excellence for the academ ic, social and life skills aspects of a student-athlete's total person has been remarkable. “Harold will continue to work in the areas of academic and student services over these next months and will play a key role in assisting us with several projects in the future involving our stu dent-athletes,” McGee said. One of the projects White will be working on will be identifying and lo cating former student-athletes who have _ not fulfilled their degree requirements Harold White and develop a plan to facilitate their even tual graduation. White, a Columbia native, received his bachelor's degree from S.C. State Uni versity in 1963. He joined the USC athletics department in 1971 as a grad uate assistant football coach. White became an academic coun selor in 1973 and worked in that capac ity for 16 years. In 1988, he assumed responsibilities of USC's Wellness Program and also served as the program's NCAA compli-,_ ance officer for two years. White was named associate athletics director in 1993 when McGee appoint ed him to oversee the department's acad emic support and student services area. In 1993, White was awarded the pres tigious Lan Hewlett Award by the Na tional Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics (NAAAA) for his exem plary service in academic advising. White was also recognized as one of the founders of the NAAAA organiza tion. White says that his association with the Gamecock program has had a tremen dous impact on his life. “The best years of my professional career have been the last seven under the leadership of Mike McGee,” White said. “To be a part of his vision for the ath letics program has been exciting. I m happy I will have the opportu nity to continue my association with the athletics family by developing a network of former student-athletes and assisting those athletes who have not completed their degrees do so.” White and his wife, Mozella, have two daughters, Tamiko Richardson and Thyra Austin, and three grandchildren, Andrew Richardson, Amber Austin and Aaron Austin. Barber, Trammell win NCAA titles USC Sports Informaton Durham, N.C - On June 4, the USC women’s track team won its first NCAA relay title and finished sixth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships - joining UCLA and Texas as the only three programs to finish in the top 10 the past five years. Individually, Terrence Trammell won his sixth NCAA title with his second straight 110m hurdles title and Miki Bar ber and Demetria Washington went 1 2 in the 400m. The women finished sixth with 36 points and LSU won the title with 59 points. Stanford's men upset Arkansas to win the men's title with 72 points as South Carolina finished 11th with 20 points. It is LSU’s 12th women's title in 14 years. USC's 4x400m relay made it two straight (Penn Relays, NCAAs) over the Longhorns of Texas as USC easily de feated Texas by shattering the school record by more than two seconds to fin ish at 3:28.64. USC's Miki Barber took the stick in third place and walked down both Texas and Southern Cal. Texas fin ished second at 3:30.05. USC was dis qualified after the race as Elakisha Williamson tangled with Moushami Robinson of Texas on the third leg. USC protested and won the protest, re clinching the title. “There was a lot of improvement from last year with Miki and Demetria. You are always proud when they make improvements like that,” said Car olina Head Track and Field Coach Cur tis Frye. “Terrence is incredible. He struggled with a lot of tilings - the heat, two events, everything. He did what great Ones do - win when you are sup posed to.” Miki Barber, the NCAA runner-up in 1999, won the women's 400m with * a time of 51.14. Barber led the erftire race and redeemed herself after finish ing as ihe runner-up at the NCAA in door meet. It’s Barber’s second NCAA title (200m 2000 NCAA Indoors). Ear lier in the week Barber was voted the National Outdoor Female of the Year. “I felt really good. I just tried to stay strong on the straight away. I wanted the time to be faster, but I wanted to win the gold medal,” Baiber said. “There is always pressure to win as the favorite, but I just tried to run like I have been* running and be strong the whole race.” Teammate Demetria Washington was the runner-up at 51.82. Washing ton caught UNLVs Michele Davis with 30 meters to go in the race. “I’m glad that Miki and I went 1 2,” Washington said. “I am happy to see my teammate win. Everybody wants to win, but I am happy for Miki.” Check out GamecockCentral.com for message boards, Sr® ^^hftjg2[j[Is^fogtbajj._basebaH, basketball, and morel 1