Mike White, the Illini head coach credited with reviving the football program in the 1980s, died less than a month before his 90th birthday on Dec. 14, 2025.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

December 14, 2025

The man who was credited with the revival of the football program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has died.

Mike White died Sunday at age of 89. White, a native of Berkeley, Calif., was best known for taking over the rebuilding project of the Illini football program, which had experienced just one winning season from 1966-79, in 1980 and immediately found success with his his high-powered West Coast Offense scheme led by the talents of highly-acclaimed quarterbacks including Dave Wilson, Tony Eason and Jack Trudeau. White’s first standing ovation at Memorial Stadium came famously upon his team’s first incomplete pass. After promising to run a more fan friendly offensive scheme than previous Illini coaches throughout the 1970s, Wilson’s first pass of the 1980 season in a game against Northwestern, which Illinois won 35–9, fell incomplete but the Illini fans were so impressed at the aggressive nature of the first-down pass that the announced crowd of 44,222 erupted in joy.

White’s 1981 Illinois squad finished with a 7-4 overall record and White had the Illini in the Liberty Bowl the following season, Illinois’ first bowl berth since winning the 1963 Rose Bowl, where he lost in Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant’s final game as a collegiate head coach just four weeks before Bryant died of a massive heart attack.

White’s most famous Illinois squad was the 1983 team that went 10-2 overall including a perfect 9-0 in Big Ten Conference play that comprised of home wins against then-No. 4 Iowa, then-No. 6 Ohio State and then-No. 8 Michigan. Seven Illinois players received 1983 first-team All-Big Ten honors running back Dwight Beverly, guard Jim Juriga, tackle Chris Babyar, defensive linemen Mark Butkus along with defensive back Craig Swoope and kicker Chris White. Trudeau led the Big Ten with 203 complete passes, a 62.7 percent completion rate, and 2,446 passing yards. However, Illinois culminated that 1983 season with a 45-9 upset loss in the 1984 Rose Bowl in a game some believe an Illini win would’ve allowed the program to celebrate at least a share of the university’s first ever Associated Press national championship. Following the 1983 season, White was named the Walter Camp Coach of the Year and received Big Ten Coach of the Year honors.

White's three bowl games coached at Illinois is tied with current Illini head coach Bret Bielema for the most in program history.

White’s pass-heavy offense was considered innovative in the Big Ten in the early 1980s and his recruiting prowess was also considered unique to the University of Illinois as he was able to attract and enroll several highly talented junior college players to Champaign-Urbana including Eason and All-American wide receiver David Williams from his home state of California. A College Football Hall of Fame inductee in 2005, Williams still holds Illinois records for career receptions, season receptions, career touchdown receptions, season touchdown receptions, career receiving yardage, and season receiving yardage.

White is credited with recruiting and/or coaching five members of the current Illini Athletics Hall of Fame including Williams, Trudeau, Moe Gardner, Jeff George and Darrick Brownlow.

After compiling back-to-back losing seasons in 1986 and 1987, White resigned in Jan. 1988 after an NCAA investigation has begun into alleged recruiting violations by the program that would be considered legal in this current era of college football.

White’s 47 wins at Illinois is still third all-time in program history behind just Robert Zuppke (131) and Ray Eliot (83).

“Coach White was called upon to undertake a very difficult task in 1979 when our football program was enjoying very little success,” then-Illinois interim chancellor Morton Weir said following White’s resignation. “His teams brought excitement back to Illinois football.”

Three years after he left Champaign-Urbana, White would be hired into the National Football League to Al Davis’ Los Angeles Raiders franchise by then-head coach Art Shell as an offensive assistant coach. Davis would later promote White to Raiders head coach in 1995 after the franchise had moved back to Oakland where he compiled a 15-17 overall record in two seasons. White later helped the St. Louis Rams to a Super Bowl championship during the 1999 season as a member of the offensive staff.