White was born in Macon County, Tennessee and attended the George Peabody College for Teachers (now part of Vanderbilt University), along with Sue Gunter and Doris Rogers, both of whom went on to play for the United States women"s national basketball team
She completed all of the undergraduate requirements for a degree in education except for the student teaching requirement, which she was unable to complete due to shyness.
She is considered one of the most outstanding female players in history. George Peabody did not have a women"s basketball team, so she played for the Amateur Athletic Union team in Nashville sponsored by Nashville Business College. She was named Amateur Athletic Union All-American for 15 years in a row from 1955 to 1969, and she led the Nashville Business College team to ten Amateur Athletic Union national championships during that period.
White was named the Most Valuable Player of the Amateur Athletic Union National Tournament nine times.
White was "widely acknowledged as the greatest woman ever to play the game". In 1966, Harley Redin (head coach of the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens, the dominant team of the 1950s) called her the "greatest woman basketball player in history".
In 1957 she led the United States National Team to winning the World Championship. She was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, and voted the Best Woman Player in the World.
She was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992 and in the Women"s Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.
At the turn of the century, Sports Illustrated for Women identified the century"s greatest sportswomen. Nera White is #51 on the list of all sports, and is the sixth highest basketball player on the list, behind Cheryl Miller, Teresa Edwards, Ann Meyers, Nancy Lieberman and Anne Donovan. Hall of Fame player and coach Sue Gunter said that White was the best of the best.
She was honored as All-World in 1959 and 1965 for the American Statistical Association Fast Pitch softball team
She played centerfield, shortstop and pitcher. White was the first woman to ever circle the bases in ten seconds.
The high school gym in her hometown, Lafayette, Tennessee is named after her. A local highway (State Route 10 North) has been renamed Nera White Highway.
White played on the United States National team, in the 1957 World Championship.
The World Championship game was against the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, the first time the United States of America had faced the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics in a major competition. The United States of America came into the final with a single loss to Czechoslovakia, while the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics was undefeated. White was the leading scorer on the United States of America team, averaging 14.1 points per game.
