The Elon University Board of Trustees has named the bell tower at the north athletics complex the Alan J. White Bell Tower in honor of the university's former athletics director. Details...
White retired this year after leading Elon’s athletics programs for more than 35 years.
The tower stands at the center of facilities that were constructed during White’s tenure, including Rhodes Stadium and McKinnon Field; Latham Park; Rudd, Hunt and Tucker fields; Koury Field House; and Belk Track and Alan and Norma White Field.
Elon University President Leo M. Lambert said naming the bell tower in White’s honor is an appropriate expression of gratitude for his years of dedication and service.
“With wisdom and integrity, Alan guided Elon’s intercollegiate athletics program through unprecedented change and growth,” Lambert said. “The Alan J. White Bell Tower is a campus landmark and a permanent monument to the esteem in which he is held by the board of trustees and the entire Elon University community.”
The formal naming ceremony for White Bell Tower will be held during an event prior to Elon’s Sept. 9 home football opener. White and his wife Norma will be joined by their good friends Jeanne and Jerry Robertson, who made a generous gift to Elon’s athletics scholarship endowment to name the bell tower in White’s honor. Jeanne Robertson is an Elon trustee.
The pre-game event will also include the launch of the Phoenix Club, the new fundraising organization for Elon athletics, and a reunion of Elon’s 1980 and 1981 national championship teams.