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University of Minnesota Athletics
GREG WHITE, METRIS COMPANIES INC. SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT
11/26/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
| Senior Greg White and Metris Companies Inc. President and CEO Ron Zebeck |
Raised on the mean streets of Newark, N.J., White, in his third season as a defensive end with the Gopher football team, had parents deeply involved in drugs, and four younger siblings - including a brother with Down's Syndrome. He sometimes stayed home from school to supervise. In his junior year at Malcolm X Shabazz High School, he moved in with a sympathetic English teacher who helped keep his life on track.
The first time Coach Glen Mason met White, he was impressed by the young man's ability to execute a standing backflip - while dressed in work boots and an overcoat. That amazing athleticism has helped make him a key defensive player and a ferocious pass rusher.
White, who is enrolled in the intercollege program, a designed major with emphasis in rhetoric, educational phycology and youth studies, would like a shot at the NFL after graduating. But like most Golden Gopher scholarship recipients, his long-range plans involve helping others the way he himself has been helped. In the end, he hopes to go into counseling. "I just want to help people," he explained.
