Mark Maloney on Kentucky sports

When judo players from the University of the Cumberlands — then known as Cumberland College — took three of the seven available spots on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, who could have imagined the lasting impact?

Eddie Liddie, Doug Nelson and Leo White represented Cumberland(s) in the Los Angeles Olympics, Liddie taking an extra-lightweight bronze medal. Another Cumberland judoka, Joe Marchal, made the 1998 Seoul Olympics. White made the Olympic team for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, when Liddie was an alternate.

Liddie and White have never left the elite-level judo program.

Liddie is USA Judo’s director of athlete performance, which means he oversees the whole program, men and women.

White, an 18-time national champion, served as USA Judo’s team leader at the Beijing Olympics, sort of Liddie’s right-hand man.

And now, more than 24 years after Cumberland(s) had three judokas in the same Olympics, White has just been named as one of 10 individuals to serve on USA Judo’s board of directors. For White, this is his second four-year term on the board as coach director.

White joined USA Judo’s administration shortly after the 1992 Olympics, serving on the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Board of Directors, as well as the Athlete’s Advisory Council, until 2000. Beginning in 2000, White became Director of Coaching and Training for USA Judo and, later, Director of Development.

A retired U.S. Army officer, White makes his home in Lilburn, Ga.

The full board: White, coach director; Lance Nading, president; Ken Bellmard, independent director; Grace Jividen, athlete director; Jason Rivera, independent director; Noboru Saito, referee director; Mike Swain, Groups B/C director; Gail Stolzenburg, at-large member; and Jim Webb, Group A director.

Outgoing president Dr. Ron Tripp will remain on the board in a non-voting capacity as president emeritus and secretary general. He will represent USA Judo at international events and meetings when the president is unavailable.