MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Pete White, one of the key members of West Virginia University's first NCAA Tournament team in 1955, died earlier today, according to a text message his son, Brad, sent to the WVU Foundation.
 
White was a first-team all-state player at Clendenin High in 1951 who turned down a scholarship offer to play for Adolph Rupp at Kentucky to attend his home-state school.
 
"We didn't have TV back then. I grew up in Clendenin and across the street we had a sycamore tree, and we nailed a backboard up there, and rain or snow, we were out there playing all the time," White once recalled in 2005.
 
The 6-foot-5, 190-pound forward became a three-year starter for West Virginia, averaging 15.8 points and 12.0 rebounds per game during his senior season in 1955 – coach Fred Schaus' first guiding the Mountaineer program.
 
After losing 84-58 at Penn State in early February, West Virginia got on a late roll and won its last five regular season games, including a 93-86 triumph at Pitt where White scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, and a memorable, 83-74 victory over fifth-ranked George Washington at the old Field House to conclude the regular season.
 
White tallied 14 points and grabbed 13 boards in that contest, but it was All-American guard Hot Rod Hundley's 39 points and Clayce Kishbaugh's in-your-face defense against GW's Corky Devlin that White most readily recalled about that great victory.
 
"I remember when we played GW at home Clayce was guarding Devlin and Fred said, 'Stay in his face!' Well, I don't know what Clayce did, but Devin threw an elbow and it caught him right in the throat, and they had to take him off the court on a stretcher," White chuckled.
 
Hundley, not known for his defensive prowess, ended up guarding Devlin for the rest of the game and held him to 29 – 10 points below the 39 that he scored.
 
At the time, Schaus was roughly the same age as his oldest players and free spirits like Hundley and Kishbaugh were sometimes difficult for him to handle.
 
"I remember a game when we played Rutgers at home and Schaus pulled me out of the game and he said, 'What in the hell is going on out there? What is Hundley doing?' Rod was going for the Field House scoring record, and he took like the first 12 shots of the game," White said. "(Schaus said), 'What the hell is this, a damned shooting gallery?' It had to be tough for Fred because Rod really was almost uncontrollable at times."
 
West Virginia's rematch against George Washington came two weeks later in the championship game of the Southern Conference Tournament at the old Richmond Arena in Richmond, Virginia.
 
Hundley scored 30 of West Virginia's 58 points in his personal duel with Devin, who ended up getting half of GW's 48 points. That was the game when Hundley had a chance to set the Southern Conference three-game scoring record but infamously tried two free throws, one from behind his back and the other a hook shot, when the game was already sewn up.
 
He missed both, to which he remarked afterward, "That only means I'll have something to shoot for next year."
 
White was also a big contributor in that victory with 15 crucial rebounds going up against the much bigger and much stronger Joe Holup, who stood three inches taller and weighed at least 30 pounds more than White.
 
It was West Virginia's first Southern Conference championship, meaning its first NCAA Tournament berth in school history. The team drove by automobile through a snowstorm back through the mountains to Morgantown late Saturday night in time to take a Monday morning train to New York City to face third-ranked LaSalle in a first-round game at Madison Square Garden.
 
The Explorers' best player was All-American guard Tom Gola.
 
Although West Virginia did not fare well against Gola or the Explorers, White had a strong performance with a team-best 19 points and 11 rebounds. He believes that effort opened the door for him to potentially sign a pro contract with the St. Louis Hawks.
 
But White politely declined, choosing instead to fulfill his ROTC commitment in the United States Air Force and get on with his life.
 
His professional career included more than 60 years as a well-known insurance mogul in Charleston working for the White Planning Group – many of those with his son, Brad, a Vanderbilt graduate.
 
His daughter, Anne White, was an All-American tennis player at USC who became a nationally ranked player on the women's professional tour. She was recently inducted into the Western States Pro Tennis Hall of Fame.
 
White's post-collegiate ties to West Virginia University remained deep for the remainder of his life. He served 42 years on the WVU Foundation Board and received WVU's Order of Vandalia in 2001. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from WVU and was later commissioned first lieutenant in the United States Air Force.
 
In 2019, he was inducted into the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame.
 
His 70-game Mountaineer career included 746 points and 561 rebounds and personal highs of 29 points and 27 rebounds in the same game at Pitt his senior year, but his lasting legacy was the season he captained in 1955 that helped set West Virginia University down a path toward national prominence in the late 1950s when Jerry West led the Mountaineers to the 1959 NCAA championship game.
 
White wore his Old Gold and Blue colors proudly then and the years afterward. It was at WVU where he met his wife, Jo, in English class. They were married shortly after he graduated.
 
"I used to tell Fred the reason he had such a good coaching career was because I helped him get started," White joked. "That was his first year in coaching.
 
"But he was just a very genuine and sincere person," he quickly added.
 
As was Pete White. He was 89.