(courtesy of Keith Jarrett, Asheville Citizen-Times)
ASHEVILLE- The birth of his first son, a banana milkshake and a pizza all stood between Steve White and his streak of consecutive games attended for Western Carolina football.
That was more than 20 years ago, but "Whitey" - a beloved figure in Cullowhee, the Southern Conference and to anyone else who has been associated with WCU athletics - found a way to make it to the football game that day at East Tennessee State.
Since 1970, White, 63, has attended every football game the Catamounts have played. That's 399 games over 37 years, through about 200 road trips and an overall record of 185-207-7.
Today in Lynchburg, Va., the school's longtime sports information director who has worked as a radio analyst and producer since his retirement from the school in 1998 will see his 400th straight game when the Catamounts (2-6) play Liberty (3-5).
"That's a lot of football," White said with his trademark quick laugh. "Some of it's been very good, some of it not so good, but I've loved it all."
Through five coaches and thousands of players, White has pulled for the Catamounts while doing his jobs and has made friends everywhere he's gone.
His streak began in 1970 when the young WCU graduate and native of Morganton was hired as the school's SID.
A young coach named Bob Waters was in his second season of building a solid program in Cullowhee, and part of White's job was attending games, catering to the media's needs and taking care of statistics decades before computers or even fax machines made the job easier.
And there was one memorable day when the streak almost ended.
"The closest call came in 1982, when my wife was pregnant," said White. "It was about noon and I was getting ready to leave for the game at (ETSU) when my wife said, 'I believe today is the day.'
"I said yep, it's a big day. It's football day and I'm fired up," he said, laughing. "She said, 'No, I think today is the day the baby is coming.' ''
White made arrangements to have a student assistant take care of his duties and drove his wife to the hospital.
"The doctor said it was going to happen this afternoon, and I said, 'Can you give me a time?' and the doctor just said sometime in the afternoon.
"I was wheeling and dealing in the back of my mind and thinking that if she had the baby by 4 o'clock I could get on the road by five and make the game. But I wasn't telling my wife what I was thinking.''
White's second child and first son was born at 3:58 p.m., but there were complications.
"My wife told me she wanted a banana milkshake and a pizza," White said. "The milkshake place didn't have bananas, so went to the A&P and got a banana, then I got the pizza and went back to the milkshake place to give them the banana."
White delivered the goodies to his wife and got the OK to leave. "She told me she was going to sleep and the baby's going to the nursery, so you can go on to the game. I said, 'Gotcha,' and I took off.
"I got there right at the kickoff and (ETSU SID) John Cathey had already passed out cigars in the press box, and afterwards the team gave me the game ball."
Several dramatic games stand out - a playoff game at Holy Cross in 1983 when WCU was en route
to playing in the I-AA national championship game, a 1975 battle against an 8-1 Appalachian State team when the 2-7 Cats won 20-11, 1979 in Boone that was the second game ever televised by ESPN, a heartbreaking 12-7 loss to rival ASU in 1994 when both teams were nationally ranked.
Almost all of the road trips have been by bus or car, and White has spent much of his adult life around college sports. He's also been to approximately 1,100 WCU basketball games and has missed only about a dozen, usually when basketball conflicted with a football game.
"I can't remember a time when Steve wasn't involved in Western Carolina athletics," said football coach Kent Briggs.
"If anybody bleeds purple, it's Steve White. Nobody knows more about our sports history. You would think after 400 games some of that enthusiasm might fade, but he's still as upbeat and positive about Western as he's always been."