2013 Hall of Fame Roster
Roster
David White
- Weight:
- null
- Class:
- Redshirt
David White '83 epitomized the Art Gulden era of track and field at Bucknell, entering the program as a walk-on but progressively developing into an elite athlete during a glory period for Bison distance men. White's career overlapped with other Bucknell Hall of Fame distance runners, such as Bill Reifsnyder, Mark Hulme, Rick Sayre and Brian Harshman, but his record stood up with all of them, and he was elected team captain as a senior.
White became a dominant college runner by his junior year and qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 1,000 meters in 1982, where he finished fourth in his heat and had the 12th-fastest time in the preliminaries. He was part of five East Coast Conference championship teams and also competed in the 1982 NCAA Cross Country Championship as part of a Bison squad that finished 12th in the nation. In ECC Championship competition he was runner-up in the 800 and 1,500 meters.
White, a Cooperstown, N.Y., native who is now an associate professor of political science at Francis Marion University in South Carolina, saw his name littered across the Bucknell record book. Individually, he broke Hall of Famer George Buckheit's school record in the 1,500 meters by four seconds at Penn State in 1983. His time of 3:44.95 was bettered by Hulme later that season, but it still stands No. 2 all-time in Bison annals. He also still ranks fourth all-time in the indoor 1,000 meters, sixth all-time in both the indoor and outdoor 800 meters, and he consistently ran sub-4:05 mile equivalents.
Also a gifted and reliable relay runner, in 1982 White was the lead man on a 4x800-meter relay that set a school outdoor record (7:31.84) that still stands today. At the 1983 Penn Relays he was a part of three school-record relays in the same week. He led off the 4x800 relay that tied the record from the previous year, he anchored the distance medley relay team that recorded a then-record time (now third all-time) of 9:54.04, and he was also part of a team that set a school record in the 4x1500. White was also part of a 4x1600 team that set school and meet records at the Rutgers Relays.
