Coach Gwen White was a pioneer championship basketball, tennis, softball, and track coach. A native of Houston, Texas, Gwen was an outstanding athlete at Clinton High who lettered in basketball, track, and tennis. She scored more than 3,000 points for the Arrows girls basketball team including 1,050 points averaging 29 points a game in her senior season. Gwen was a member of the Clinton state championship track team and a district championship tennis team. She then starred on the basketball team and tennis squad at Hinds Community College where she claimed a state tennis title in 1956 and was a two-year letterman for the women’s hoops squad. Coach White had a 51-year coaching career and retired in 2012. She coached high school teams in the Jackson metro area to 7 state championships in three different sports. She started the AAU girls basketball and track programs in the state of Mississippi, often using her own money to fund the teams. Her basketball AAU teams won an AAU National Championship. Among the many AAU basketball standouts she coaches was two-time Olympic Gold medalist Ruthie Bolton, who is a member of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. Coach White’s basketball teams compiled a record of 373 wins and 101 losses and her Northwest Rankin tennis teams achieved a record of 325 wins and only 26 losses for a winning mark of nearly 93%. Gwen coached three undefeated state championship track teams and she was selected as an All-Star coach in tennis, basketball, and softball. She helped create the Mississippi Girls All-Star basketball game in 1965 and was the first woman to address the MAC in 1965. Coach White moved to the collegiate ranks in 1974 when she became the first coach of the Blazers women’s basketball team. She coached at Belhaven for 10 seasons through 1984 and her teams claimed 174 wins with 152 losses—a school career record for wins. Gwen coached the Blazers to three 20-win seasons and 6 winning seasons in her college career. Coach White’s Belhaven teams competed against schools of various sizes all across the state and won the 1982 state small college championship. She coached against major programs such as LSU, Kentucky, and Ohio State and led the Blazers to a 74-56 win over Kentucky on December 17, 1976. Coach White was a loyal member of the MAC who founded the first girls’ basketball camp in Mississippi. With her induction, she became the first female member of the MAC Coaches Hall of Fame. Besides her membership in the MAC shrine, Gwen was inducted into the Hinds Community College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993, the Belhaven University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015, and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame also in 2015.