Danny White was named the Athletic Director of the Year by Sports Business Journal, the first in University of Tennessee history to take home the national honor.

White was presented the accolade at the Sports Business Awards event in New York City on May 21. The award recognizes UT’s tremendous revenue growth and athletics success under his watch.

White and his father, Kevin, are the first father-son duo to win the SBJ Athletic Director of the Year award, which was first given in 2000. Kevin White received the accolade in 2014 during his tenure at Duke.

“Danny’s impact on our campus and in the changing world of intercollegiate athletics has been transformational, and I am thrilled for his leadership to be recognized as the SBJ Athletic Director of the Year,” UT Chancellor Donde Plowman said in a university release. “Danny sets the tone with his competitive drive, strategic approach and problem-solving mindset, and has built an incredible team of athletics administrators committed to supporting student-athletes and winning with integrity. The culture he has built at Tennessee is truly special.”

White was the highest-paid athletics director at a public university in the country, based on the most recent documents obtained by USA TODAY Network in 2024. That distinction came after he signed a contract extension that pays him at least $2.75 million annually.

Tennessee winning reached new heights under Danny White

But White appears to have earned his keep since being hired at UT in 2021.

In 2023-24, UT finished third in the Learfield Directors’ Cup all-sports standings, the best in school history, and won a third straight SEC All-Sports Trophy. It capped the most successful year in Vols sports history.

In 2024, UT became only the second school ever to appear in the College Football Playoff, NCAA basketball tournament Elite Eight and the College World Series in the same year. UT baseball won its first national title.

All 20 UT sports are on pace to reach the NCAA postseason in 2024-25 for a second straight year. According to UT, that would make it the first Power Four conference school to achieve that feat in back-to-back years.

Tennessee revenue growth broke records under White

Since White arrived at UT in 2021, the athletics budget has grown by almost $100 million.

UT broke a revenue record with $202 million in the 2023 fiscal year. Then it broke the record again with $234 million in revenue generated in the 2024 fiscal year.

Ticket revenue and contributions also hit record highs under White’s watch during a skyrocketing surge of growth. And major facility upgrades are underway at Neyland Stadium, Lindsey Nelson Stadium, Sherri Parker Lee Stadium, Anderson Training Center, Food City Center and Neyland Entertainment District as a developmental project.

Here are SBJ Athletic Directors of the Year winners

• 2000: Lew Perkins, UConn
• 2001: Ted Leland, Stanford
• 2002: Bob Bowlsby, Iowa
• 2003: Andy Geiger, Ohio State
• 2004: Eric Hyman, TCU
• 2005: DeLoss Dodds, Texas
• 2006: Jeremy Foley, Florida
• 2007: Tom Jurich, Louisville
• 2008: Ron Wellman, Wake Forest
• 2009: Joe Castiglione, Oklahoma
• 2010: Gene Smith, Ohio State
• 2011: DeLoss Dodds, Texas
• 2012 — Mark Hollis, Michigan State University
• 2013 — Mal Moore, University of Alabama
• 2014: Kevin White, Duke
• 2015: Jeff Long, Arkansas
• 2016: Gene Smith, Ohio State
• 2017: Dan Radakovich, Clemson
• 2018: Jim Phillips, Northwestern
• 2019: Mitch Barnhart, Kentucky
• 2020: Scott Stricklin, Florida
• 2021: Mack Rhoades, Baylor
• 2022: Sandy Barbour, Penn State
• 2023: J.D. Wicker, San Diego State
• 2024: Chris Del Conte, Texas
• 2025: Danny White, Tennessee

Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Just over three years ago, Oscar Smith came within minutes of being executed before Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee issued a surprise reprieve that revealed problems with the lethal injection drugs. On Thursday, the state is prepared to try again.

Asked in a recent phone interview about coming so close to death in 2022, Smith declined to reflect very deeply on it but instead expressed a wish that Lee had not intervened, saying the past three years on death row have been “more than hell.” Without going into specifics, he said conditions at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee, have deteriorated, and he accused its officials of not following policies.

Smith, 75, said he asked his family to stay away on Thursday and not witness his execution because “they don’t need to see anything like that.”

Smith was convicted of fatally stabbing and shooting his estranged wife, Judith Smith, and her sons, Jason and Chad, 13 and 16, at their Nashville home on Oct. 1, 1989. A Davidson County jury sentenced him to death the following year.

Some relatives of Smith’s victims do plan to attend the execution, Tennessee Department of Correction spokesperson Dorinda Carter said in an email. The Associated Press requested to interview relatives through the Tennessee Attorney General’s victim services office, but no one agreed to be interviewed.

“My own personal minister will be with me in the execution chamber with her hand on my shoulder praying,” Smith said. He is grateful for that, but also worried about her.

“I’m having a real hard time adjusting to the idea of having a young lady in the execution chamber,” he said. “She doesn’t need any bad experiences.”

Smith will be the first Tennessee inmate to be executed under a new lethal injection process released in late December that uses a single dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital. While the method is new to Tennessee, it has been used by other states and the federal government.

A review of the drug under President Joe Biden’s administration led then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to halt its use in federal executions, finding it had the potential to cause “ unnecessary pain and suffering.” New Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered the Justice Department to reconsider that decision.

Smith is suing Tennessee over the update to the execution protocols, arguing TDOC failed to follow the recommendations of a yearlong independent investigation called for by Lee in 2022. However, that trial is not until next January — too late to change anything for Smith. Only Lee has the power to stop the execution. He said on Tuesday that he plans to let it go forward.

While lethal injection is the state’s preferred method of execution, some Tennessee inmates in recent years have exercised the option of death in the electric chair, expressing the opinion that it would be quicker and less painful. Smith, too, had the option to choose the electric chair, but declined to make a choice.

“Because of my religious beliefs, I wouldn’t participate or sign anything,” he said. “I was taught that taking your own life, or having anything to do with it, is a sin.”

Smith has continued to claim that he is innocent. In a phone interview on May 7 — shortly before he was to begin a 14-day period of relative isolation that is part of the new Tennessee execution protocol — Smith mostly wanted to discuss his case and the various ways he feels his trial was unfair.

In 2022, a Davidson County Criminal Court judge denied requests to reopen his case after a new type of DNA analysis found the DNA of an unknown person on one of the murder weapons.

“Now that I could rebut everything they used against me, the courts don’t want to hear it,” is the way Smith sees it. He says he wants a new trial and “to be found truly innocent by a jury of my peers.”

However, the judge who declined to reopen his case found the evidence of Smith’s guilt extensive, citing prior threats and a life insurance policy taken out by Smith for the three victims.

Speaking about the execution, Smith said, “It sounds like we’re going back to medieval times, to the gladiators. People want to see blood sports.

“Why anyone wants to see anyone being killed, I don’t understand it. We’re supposed to be a civilized country.”

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Ahead of severe weather this afternoon, some school districts dismiss their students early.

Here is who is closing early:

• Bedford County Schools — closing two hours early
• Franklin County Schools — 1 p.m.
• Giles County Schools — 1 p.m.
• Lawrence County Schools — 1 p.m.

We will update this list if more schools close.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email my5@newschannel5.com.