Stephanie White

BA 1999, Brian Lamb School of Communication 

Head Coach, Indiana Fever, Indianapolis, IN

An iconic figure in the state’s history of women’s basketball known for her skill, grit, poise and knowledge of the game, Stephanie White was introduced as the fifth head coach of the Indiana Fever on Sept. 23, 2014.

Taking the coaching reigns from her longtime mentor Lin Dunn, she succeeds Dunn, Brian Winters, Nell Fortner and Anne Donovan as the club’s head coach.

A local star who joined the Fever as a player during a 1999 trade prior to the team’s first season, White completed four seasons with the Fever (2000-01, 2003-04) before embarking on her coaching and broadcasting career. She returned as an Indiana assistant coach in 2011 and was elevated to the role of associate head coach prior to the 2014 season.

One of the club’s original players and a member of the Fever’s All-Decade Team announced in 2009, the Fever’s 2012 WNBA title had special meaning for White who enjoyed prep, college and pro success in the state of Indiana.

She has coached in the college and pro ranks since 2003. She retired from playing in the WNBA following the 2004 season and her hiring in 2011 marked the first time the Fever had hired an assistant coach with pro playing experience. She was reunited with Dunn, the former Purdue coach who recruited White to its West Lafayette campus.

Prior to re-joining the Fever, White spent four seasons as an assistant coach with the Chicago Sky after previous stints as a college assistant at Ball State (2003-04), Kansas State (2004-05) and Toledo (2005-07).

White also has parlayed her playing and coaching into a prominent broadcasting career with the Big Ten Network, ESPN and FOX Sports Indiana. She appears regularly on BTN’s women’s basketball studio show and provides game analysis for women’s college games on BTN and ESPN. During the 2013-14 NBA season, she began work as a pre- and postgame anchor with FOX Sports Indiana, covering the Indiana Pacers.

After leading Purdue to a national championship in 1999 and being drafted by the Charlotte Sting (2nd round, No. 21 overall), White was eventually acquired by the Fever in December 1999 to lead her hometown team into its first season of existence. White played four seasons with the Fever where she was a teammate of current Fever star Tamika Catchings.

A 5-10 shooting guard, she played five pro seasons between 1999-04, capping her career with the Fever for whom she was one of the club’s top playmakers, 3-point artists and free throw shooters. She still ranks prominently among franchise leaders in games played, minutes, 3-pointers, assists, steals, 3-point percentage and free throw percentage. Her 93 percent free throw shooting in 2003 remains a Fever record.

White’s legacy as a prep and college star made her one of the state’s most popular figures even before she donned a Fever uniform. Beginning at tiny Seeger Memorial High School, in West Central Indiana near the Illinois border, White set early standards for basketball excellence while becoming an Indiana icon. She averaged 36.9 points and 13.1 rebounds per game while being named Indiana Miss Basketball and the 1995 national high school player of the year by Gatorade and USA Today.

Record crowds began following the small-school sensation as she led the Patriots to a 92-7 record over four seasons and finished her prep career with an Indiana record 2,869 points, still the second-best figure in state history.

In Indiana’s years of single-class basketball, White and Seeger won sectional and regional titles in all four seasons that she played.

At Purdue, she averaged double-figure scoring in four straight seasons. As a senior she averaged 20.2 points and 4.5 assists per game while earning the 1999 Wade Trophy as the national college player of the year. The Big Ten Player of the Year, she led Purdue to an unbeaten league mark (16-0) and its first NCAA title. She finished her career second in school history in points and assists.

She was inducted into the Purdue Athletics Hall of Fame on April 21, 2006.

Internationally, White competed with USA Basketball as a member of the 1997 Jones Cup Team that won a silver medal in Taipei, Taiwan. The USA lost the gold medal game against South Korea, 76-71, with White finishing the tournament as the second-leading scorer for the U.S., averaging 10.3 points per game.

Born in Danville, Ill., and raised in West Lebanon, Ind., White gave birth to her first child, Landon Fletcher White, on Sept. 27, 2011 — the morning of Game 3 of the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals. White and partner Michelle welcomed twin boys, Aiden and Avery, on Aug. 3, 2013.