Condredge Holloway
When Penn State University’s football team lost to Tennessee, 28-21, on Sept. 16, 1972, the Nittany Lion coach praised the new sophomore Vol quarterback.
“That kid is everything they say he is,” the coach said, adding that he likely made the difference in the game. “He is a great competitor and a clutch player.”
The coach was Joe Paterno, who has remained in the national sports news headlines in the four subsequent decades as he defies Father Time by continuing as the Penn State coach into his 80s.
But the quarterback – Condredge Holloway - has mostly disappeared from the headlines. That is, until now.
As part of its “Year of the Quarterback” series, ESPN is scheduled to air a Kenny Chesney-produced and narrated documentary Sunday, Feb. 20, at 8 p.m. called “The Color Orange: The Condredge Holloway Story.”
A premiere of the film took place Wednesday night at the Tennessee Theatre in downtown Knoxville, where numerous friends and family of Mr. Holloway gathered, and such familiar Vol names as current coach Derek Dooley and Holloway’s coach, Bill Battle, were spotted on television talking to each other.
The film is supposedly an emotional one as it chronicles the former Huntsville resident’s experience as the first black quarterback in the Southeastern Conference and the second at a major college in the South behind Georgia Tech quarterback Eddie McAshan.
Because of his talent and pioneering role, many older or longtime Tennessee fans likely still remember Mr. Holloway for his years as the starting quarterback of Tennessee from 1972-74, as a baseball standout for the Vols and later for his Hall of Fame career in the Canadian Football League.
I was in the seventh, eighth and ninth grades playing junior high football at Baylor School during Holloway’s three years at Tennessee, so I was certainly at an age to look up to Holloway, who wore No. 7. And I certainly did while also admiring fellow Vols Larry Seivers, Stanley Morgan and Haskel Stanback, whose careers overlapped Holloway’s.
Besides wanting to be able to avoid a defender or throw like Holloway could, I also wanted to catch passes like Seivers and be as nimble footed as Morgan, whose No. 21 jersey I wore under my Baylor uniform in high school. And when I played seventh and eighth grade football, I certainly took note that I had the same jersey number – 24 – as Stanback.
On the field, Mr. Holloway had a Michael Vick-like style of being a lightning quick scrambler and runner who could also throw the ball pretty well, while off the gridiron he seemed to have a low-key and admirable demeanor at a time when being one of the first black athletes at a traditional Southern university was probably not always easy.
He generally seemed to let his usually spectacular play speak for itself and likely pushed racial relations forward in a positive manner in the Volunteer State.
Mr. Holloway played at Tennessee at a time when a number of Chattanooga area players also did. Among those were lineman Bill Emendorfer of Cleveland, defensive back/punt returner Eddie Brown from Marion County, linebacker Steve Poole from Lakeview/Fort Oglethorpe, barefoot kicker Ricky Townsend from Dalton, fullback Paul Careathers of LaFayette, defender Carl Johnson from Bradley County, offensive end Mitchell Gravitt of Hixson and running back Eddie Lawson from Red Bank. Future Howard coach Robert Pulliam was also a defensive lineman.
But Mr. Holloway likely drew the greatest praise, and it came at a time when coach Battle was getting a few more negative comments by Vol fans concerned at the growing number of losses.
In 1972, the Vols finished 10-2, including an Astro Bluebonnet Bowl win over LSU in the Astrodome. However, they did lose to Alabama after mistakes late in the game.
The next year, the team had a sour loss to Texas Tech in the Gator Bowl to finish the season at 8-4. Tennessee had also suffered an early November homecoming loss to Georgia after the Vols tried an unsuccessful fake punt late and the Bulldogs capitalized for the victory.
In 1974, Mr. Holloway’s senior year, Tennessee finished 7-3-2, including a win over Maryland in the Liberty Bowl, after which Coach Battle’s father died of a heart attack. I actually attended that game and have never forgotten seeing an ambulance frantically rushing by as we left the stadium.
I did not realize what had happened until the next day.
Out of curiosity, I decided to go back and look at some old Chattanooga News-Free Press newspapers on microfilm and see how Mr. Holloway’s exploits were chronicled by longtime Vol football beat writer Austin White, whose career at that paper overlapped mine by only a few months.
Mr. Holloway’s debut came against Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Sept. 9, 1972, a game won by the Vols, 34-3.
Mr. White wrote of him, “Holloway, the heralded black quarterback from Huntsville, Ala., shared offensive honors.”
He also said Mr. Holloway appeared often to pass when the situation looked as though he could run for yardage. He would learn to run plenty at Tennessee, and Mr. White noted that he did track down a Georgia Tech defender after throwing an interception.
After the game, according to Mr. White, Mr. Holloway gave the reporters an insight into how he was being accepted at Tennessee. “When I threw that interception, I didn’t feel good, but when I got to the sidelines, all the seniors crowded around me with encouraging comments.”
Mr. Holloway would hear from thousands more encouraging Vol supporters the next Saturday against Penn State in a historic game not only because of Mr. Holloway’s home debut as Tennessee’s first black quarterback, but also because it was the first Neyland Stadium game played under lights.
Against Alabama on Oct. 21, 1972, Mr. Holloway had a little stumble as he had a key fumble late in the game after being tackled hard by future Alabama coach Mike DuBose. The Tide under Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant was then able to score two late touchdowns with its wishbone offense and win, 17-10.
Mr. Holloway was also injured during the game and was replaced by Gary Valbuena.
Perhaps Mr. Holloway’s most famous moment as a Vol came on Sept. 7, 1974, at Neyland Stadium against regular intersectional rival UCLA, which was under first-year coach Dick Vermeil. Mr. Holloway started the game by throwing a 74-yard touchdown pass to the speedy Mr. Morgan on the second play from scrimmage.
The play had been called before the first play, and the Vols caught the Bruins flat footed by not running a huddle before the long play.
Mr. Holloway ended up covering a lot of ground during the course of the game, and some of it was not even inside the stadium. After he injured a shoulder late in the second quarter, he was taken to nearby UT Medical Center for x-rays, while Pat Ryan filled in for him.
When he returned to the stadium near the end of the third quarter and trotted onto the field from the South end zone corridor, he was greeted by a thunderous Vol cheering section.
He went on to lead a late scoring drive, diving over from 12 yards out to secure a 17-17 tie in what was considered one of the more exciting Vol games of the 1970s.
“Holloway showed the Bruins why he is a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate,” said Mr. White.
Mr. Holloway did not finish in the top 10 of the Heisman voting that year and closed out his Tennessee career as the Vols beat Maryland, 7-3, in the Liberty Bowl. He was injured on a field goal attempt in the fourth quarter, and Randy Wallace threw the winning touchdown pass to Seivers late in the game.
As mentioned, the bowl victory celebration was tempered after Coach Battle’s 66-year-old father, W.R. Battle, suffered a heart attack in the stands less than a month after Coach Battle’s mother had died.
Mr. Holloway went on to star in Canada, but, like probably most other Tennesseans, I saw or heard little about him because the Canadian Football League received only scant attention in Tennessee.
After moving to Knoxville in 2005, I started tutoring UT athletes some at the UT academic facility named for Chattanooga businessman John Thornton. I was going in one day about 2007, and out walked Mr. Holloway, who by then was working for the athletic department.
He gave me a big smile and greeted me, and I remember wishing later that I had introduced myself to him as a former young fan.
After Sunday’s ESPN special, more may want to greet him as well.
Jcshearer2@comcast.net
In action against Georgia