white hope a person expected to bring much success to a team or organization.

☞ The expression originated in the USA in the 1910s as an epithet applied to a white heavyweight boxer who it was hoped (by whites) might beat Jack Johnson, the first black boxer to hold the world heavyweight title (1908–15). Its racial connotations make it prudent nowadays to avoid it.

1941Lord BernersFar from the Madding War He was a composer: the white hope (so a critic had described him) of English music.