Better late than never for Holloway

Photo by Michael Patrick

Former UT quarterback and baseball player Condredge Holloway, who is from Huntsville, Ala., will be inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame on May 31.

Joe Louis, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and now Condredge Holloway.

Two decades since taking his last snap and 34 years since his last base hit, the University of Tennessee two-sport star has found a home alongside a bevy of sports’ greatest names in one of its most prestigious buildings: the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

“I won’t say that they forgave me (for leaving Alabama for Tennessee), but they might have taken a step,” Holloway said with a grin following the announcement.

As emotional as the topic might still be for Tide fans, it wasn’t a hard decision for Holloway when he came out of Lee High in Huntsville. Quite simply, Holloway wanted to play quarterback.

At the time, that option wasn’t available at Alabama. The Crimson Tide ran the Wing T, which would have been tough going for a 150-pound quarterback. (Holloway admits he was 20 pounds lighter than UT listed him in media guides.)

Stereotypes also ruled the day in Tuscaloosa. UT offered more than a scholarship — it offered a chance to become the first black quarterback in SEC history.

Holloway said he’s often still asked about his decision to head to Knoxville. Is that a sign that fan bias played a factor in his much delayed induction later this month?

“I will not even attempt to try to answer that,” Holloway said. “Alabama and Tennessee have been fighting a long time.”

The delay — deliberate or not — came with a cost. When Holloway looks into the crowd during his induction speech May 31 in Birmingham, he won’t see his biggest fan beaming back at him.

Holloway’s father passed away in 2006 from complications following a stroke five years earlier. Holloway said his father was always the one keeping the dream alive that his son would one day be inducted into the hall of fame that hit closest to home.

“I didn’t think it would come because I was led to believe it wouldn’t come,” Holloway said. “Of course, my dad never believed that.”

Holloway’s father firmly believed his son deserved to be inducted on his athletic merit. The induction committee evidently didn’t agree.

All these years later, it wasn’t just his play on the field that got Holloway accepted. It was also a campaign led by former UT football coach Bill Battle along with Congressman Jimmy Duncan and Lady Vol basketball coach Pat Summitt, who wrote letters of support.

UT’s sports information department knew the ropes. They fought a similar fight to have Richmond Flowers, the former UT football and track star, inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

Holloway, however, needed some convincing. Campaigning to be recognized wasn’t how he was raised.

“I came in one day after a baseball game,” Holloway said, recalling a lesson he learned from his father. “He said ‘Son, how’d you do?’ So, I rattled off my stats.

“He said ‘You know that’s pretty good, but that just means you have a good memory. When you really get good is when you go out and play and other people tell you how good you played.’”

Holloway was torn. Campaign and reach his father’s ultimate athletic achievement for his son or stick by that lesson learned long ago.

Finally, with so much at stake, Holloway relented. The blitz was on.

With a resume full of high school state championships and awards in football and baseball, the well-chronicled athletic exploits at UT and a dozen standout years in the Canadian Football League, it didn’t take long for the Alabamians in charge to make their decision.

One Birmingham, Ala., native didn’t mince words when asked about the timing of Holloway’s induction.

“I don’t want to disrespect anyone down there but that’s utterly ridiculous,” Duke head coach David Cutcliffe said on the News Sentinel’s radio show, The Sports Page. “He should have been in 20 years ago.”

Cutcliffe spent much of his coaching career at UT. Former quarterback Pat Ryan spent much of his career watching Holloway from the bench before becoming the starter.

“I don’t think there’s been anybody like Condredge Holloway,” Ryan said. “I saw him up close and personal for three years and he is, in my opinion, the best quarterback to ever play at Tennessee. And I don’t think it’s even close.”

Perhaps Holloway would have been an bigger star had he tried his hand in the NFL instead of the CFL.

That, however, wasn’t much of an option in the mid-1970’s, as NFL teams insisted on traditional drop-back passers. Now, athleticism is a key component in choosing a quarterback in any league.

“Condredge was 30 years ahead of his time,” Ryan said. “Condredge, coming out today, would be the star of stars in the offenses they run. Not only could he run, but he was a great passer.”

Some might think Holloway is conflicted, with a foot on each side of one of the fiercest rivalries in college football.

Not so.

Holloway is UT’s assistant athletic director for player relations, yet has business interests in Huntsville as a co-owner of D-I training facilities.

“I went to Tennessee and I’m a Tennessee guy, but I was born in Huntsville, Alabama,” Holloway said. “I don’t ever want to deny that and I wouldn’t. I’m proud to be from Huntsville.”

And Alabama seems proud to have him back. Yet for Holloway, there is something deeper than overcoming fan bias to finally being inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

“Knowing dad, he’d probably say ‘See it worked out like I told you.’” Holloway said. “He wouldn’t say much. It wouldn’t be long. It would just be something short and neat and he’d hug my neck.

“That’s just the way dad was.”

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
Want to use this article? Click here for options!