WVU Alumni
Revealing What Caused Debate, Hesitation Within WVU About Retiring Pat White’s Number
The WVU football program will officially retire the No. 5 in honor of Pat White. And while it’s much-deserved and also long overdue for most Mountaineer fans, it wasn’t an easy decision for the athletic department. It came with complications.
As stranger as that may sound, there was long debate within the department and football program itself about whether or not to retire White’s number.
No one was denying White’s greatness, but awarding White the highest honor presented to a former athlete required going against their longstanding rule. Up until White, the football program required a player to have been named a consensus first-team All-American to even be up for consideration.
Despite all of his accomplishments and the immense legacy he established, White failed to achieve consensus All-American status. If he deserves that label is up for debate based on the amount of all-time great quarterbacks playing at the same time, but the fact remains it didn’t happen.
None of that matters anymore. White’s No. 5 will take its rightful place inside Milan Puskar Stadium along side six other WVU football legends.
“Pat White was a generational player for West Virginia football and led our program through perhaps the greatest era in our history,” said WVU director of athletics Wren Baker in a statement as part of the announcement. “Everywhere I go, I hear stories about the way Pat elevated our program and his teammates to greatness.
“There is no question Pat deserves this ultimate honor. His legacy and success have been documented and appreciated by his teammates, national media and college football fans all over the world,” Baker added. “It has also been a privilege to watch him continue to pour himself into our program while serving on our coaching staff. Pat White is a special person and one of the greatest Mountaineers of all time.”
West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez, who coached the Mountaineers during three of White’s four seasons as WVU’s starting quarterback, also shared his thoughts.
“Pat was a great player and a great leader in our program, and he was a dominant force in college football for four years,” said Rodriguez. “He is very deserving of the honor of having his number retired.”
Recognizing the bending of the program’s rules, WVU also explained the process and what went into coming to this conclusion.
Baker worked with WVU’s Athletic Council to examine, review and revise the department’s number retirement criteria. By unanimous support of the Athletic Council, the criteria remains strict but also includes modern provisions to obtain the ultimate honor.
Pat White’s WVU legacy:
Many consider White the greatest Mountaineer football player of all time, and his induction into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame and football’s Mountaineer Legends Society has long been solidified by first-ballot voting in 2018.
White was the nation’s most versatile threat at quarterback, becoming the first college quarterback to start and win four consecutive bowl games from 2005-08. The Daphne, Alabama, native set 19 WVU, Big East and national records during his illustrious career, including finishing as the all-time rushing quarterback in NCAA history with 4,480 yards.
West Virginia was 35-8 (.814) with White as the starting quarterback. He led the Mountaineers to wins in the 2006 Sugar, 2007 Gator, 2008 Fiesta and 2008 Meineke Car Care Bowls. White set Big East records in touchdowns responsible for (103), total offense (10,529) and became the first player in Big East history to pass for more than 10,000 yards. He posted a 7-2 (.777) record against Top 25 opponents during his career.
Courtesy of WVU Athletics
As a freshman in 2005, White earned first team freshman All-America honors by The Sporting News, Scout and College Football News, leading WVU to a BIG East title, finishing the season 10-1 and 7-0 in the Big East with a win over No. 8 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.
As a sophomore, White was named the Big East Offensive Player of the Year in 2006 and was a semifinalist for the Davey O’Brien Award. Against Pitt, he rushed for 220 yards and threw for 204, becoming one of only eight players in NCAA history to rush and pass for 200 yards in the same game. White directed the Mountaineers to a Gator Bowl win over Georgia Tech and earned Gator Bowl MVP honors.
In 2007, White was named Big East Offensive Player of the Year for the second straight year as well as earning All-Big East First Team honors for the second consecutive year, while leading WVU to another Big East title. He was named a semifinalist for the O’Brien Award and Walter Camp Player of the Year awards while finishing sixth in the Heisman Trophy balloting. The season ended with WVU’s second BCS victory in three years with a Fiesta Bowl win over No. 3 Oklahoma as he earned Fiesta Bowl Offensive MVP honors.
In White’s final season, he eclipsed the 4,000-yard rushing, 6,000-yard passing, 10,000-yard total offense and 4,000-yard all-purpose yardage marks. He threw for a bowl-record 332 yards on 26-of-32 passing and three touchdowns in the win against North Carolina in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.
Find more coverage of Pat White at WV Sports Now.
