White was born in Sheridan, Illinois on 6 December 1878 and graduated with a master"s degree from Northwestern University. He received the nickname "Deacon" because he was the son of a preacher, and possibly as an allusion to professional baseball player James Laurie "Deacon" White.
There is no record of him playing intercollegiate sports there, but he is believed to have played intramural sports, and excelled at track, basketball, rugby, and baseball. He began his working life as a mathematic professor at the University of Chicago, but was involved with sports from soon after his graduation, and coached the Saint Alban"s Military Academy in Chicago to a state baseball championship. He moved to Iowa in 1903 to teach and coach baseball.
He then moved into baseball full-time, coaching and managing teams in Wisconsin, Montana, and North Dakota.
In the spring of 1906 he played for Spokane of the North-Western League for two months before an injury ended his season. He then formed a youth team from Anacortes, Washington and took them on a tour of Western Canada.
When the tour ended, White decided to return to Edmonton, afte being recruited by a number of local boosters there (Frank Oliver, Frank Goode, Frank Gray, and others) hoping to found a professional baseball team White first need to created a professional league in which an Edmonton could play.
This initial venture only lasted one year, however, so in 1908 he founded a four-team senior amateur league called the "Twilight League" and managed a team affiliated with the Edmonton Young Liberals Club, as well as playing first base for the Liberals.
In football he become the Edmonton Esquimaux first import player and also their coach. He led them to an Alberta Rugby Football Championship in 1908. In 1910 the Esquimaux changed their name to the Edmonton Eskimos (and later Elks) and White was their coach.
This team was the franchise predecessor to the publicly owned Edmonton Eskimo Rugby Club, established in 1948.
Though they lost both games, the Eskimos were the first western Canadian team to challenge for the Cup. In all, he coached 11 seasons, still an Eskimos franchise record.
He also was a player, coach and manager of Edmonton Eskimos baseball team
