Jan. 26, 2007

TheACC.com introduces you to the league's
athletes, coaches and administrators each week.

Johnny Holliday
Maryland Basketball and Football Announcer
28th Year
Hometown: Miami, FL
Favorite flavor ice cream: Chocolate

Johnny Holliday is now in his 28th year as the voice of the Maryland Terrapins. Not only does Holliday do play-by-play for both men's basketball and football teams, but he also does banquets, coaches' radio and television shows for the University. Prior to working with the Terps, Holliday worked in a variety of capacities for a number of NFL, NBA and other sports teams.

Holliday has won numerous awards including the Lindsey Nelson Outstanding Sportscaster Award in 2005 and the Chris Schenkle Award in 2006. In 2003, he was inducted into the Radio-Television Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

How did you get started in broadcasting?
I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I was leaning towards teaching and coaching. I wanted to be a teacher and a coach because we had coaches that were very instrumental for us, staying on the right track in high school. But I never got that opportunity in fact, before I got into broadcasting, I had done three or four other jobs, just trying to figure out what I wanted to do.

A friend of mine entered my name into a radio station disc jockey contest, as a joke he sends my name in. So I got a letter from this radio station and had really no idea what they were talking about because I didn't enter any contest. My father said "I bet your buddy Donny Lewis did that." He said, "Why don't you go through with it?"

So I went down to the station. They had a different person on every night five nights a week for three months. People sent in postcards saying who they thought was the best. I had a good time introducing records and doing commercials. I did not win the contest.

I went to visit my grandfather in the summer. And I was going to play on this little amateur baseball league team while I worked at his drug store. He was the only druggist in this little tiny town called Unadilla, Georgia. Nobody has heard of it. He had the only drug store in town, and I was in there working in the store one day. The guy that owned the radio station in Perry GA was in my grandfather's store trying to sell him some air time, some commercials. My grandfather was up in his 80s at the time. He introduced me as, "I want you to meet my grandson, he's a disc jockey" because he knew I was in a contest. So I didn't say anything. And the guy said "I'm looking for somebody to work for me." So I went up the next day... it was just the right place at the right time, the guy hired me.

I did that for about five months. Then I went back to Miami to take Miami by storm. I went to every radio station and couldn't get arrested. The last one was an R&B station, it was an all rhythm and blues station. They listened to the tape that I had and said "We just purchased a station in Rochester, New York. Would you like to go to work for us up there, we aren't going to take over until July (It was March). In the meantime, we'll put you on here, until we take over." So I did that for March, April, May and June. Then I went to Rochester for a year and a half. From there, I went to Cleveland for five years, New York City for two years and San Francisco for five. Then I came to Washington in 1969, so I've been here for 37 years now. But I really started with no experience and if it hadn't been for my grandfather telling this guy he thought that I was a disc jockey, I would have never got the opportunity. Had I said "Oh no, no I'm not" I probably wouldn't have got the job. So that's how I got my first job.

Did you ever play sports when you were younger?
I was quarterback for the football team, I was a guard in basketball and in baseball I was a pitcher. Since we were the first graduating class at North Miami High School, everything we did was a first. I had the first no-hitter. I threw the first touchdown pass in the school's history. I started the first game in baseball. In basketball, we were the first state championship team. We had started with just 10th grade, then they added a year on each year.

The reason I talk about how I wanted to teach and coach is because we had the same coaches and the same teachers since I was in 7th grade, right on through high school. They were young; they were right out of college so we could relate to them. That's why I said, "I'd like to be like Mr. Clark" and "I'd like to be like Mr. Herne." These guys were such good coaches and good people. So I played all sports in high school and did not excel in any of them, but I played all of them and had a great time.

What has been your greatest accomplishment so far?
I think probably the thing I'm most proud of is that I've had the same wife for 48 years, which in this day and age is kind of unusual. My wife's name is Mary Clare. We got married in 1958; it will be 50 years next year. And I think my three daughters. We've got three girls who are all married and have their own families, Kellie, Tracie and Moira. Each one is successful in her own right.

Who was your most influential role model?
I would have to say in my high school days it was a couple of coaches named Jack Clark was one and Fred Hyrne, my basketball coach was another one. I also had a chorus teacher named R.W. Dutton. It's so funny because all of us guys that played sports we all took chorus because it was easy, but we all liked it. This guy was a great, great teacher. He's the one that sort of molded me, (I still do theater, I try to do Summer Stock if I can, taking roles in musicals and so forth). He's the reason I took a look at theater.

I had a boss in New York that was terrific named Joel Chaseman. He was my boss at WINS in New York City. He was very influential in my recognizing that when you are in broadcasting, you are basically a salesman, if your doing commercials you have to do them a certain way, you're selling a product and so forth. I told him (and I see him time to time) that if it wasn't for him I would have never got some of the announcing jobs that I had away from sports - David Brinkley's show on ABC, Sam & Cokie on ABC. This guy really taught me how to do commercials and how to be a good announcer in a certain way.

I think on the play-by-play side there was a guy who did the Dallas Cowboys named Frank Gleiber who I used to spot for in Cleveland. I just liked the way he did things, the way he interacted with people, how he handled everybody, how nice he was to everybody. He had a real nice style on the air. I kind of tucked that into the back of my mind. I said that if I ever had a chance to do play by play (which I wasn't doing back then, I was just doing disc jockey work and theater), "I would like to be just a little bit of this guy's style and personality." He would be the one guy that I would say was instrumental in all the play-by-play work that I did.

About 1979 is when I made the conversion from disc jockeying to play-by-play. When I got my first job in Perry Georgia, I did high school basketball. I went to the games and I broadcast the Perry High School basketball games. There was a player on that team named Sam Nunn who went on to become the Senator, Senator Sam Nunn. He's now retired from the Senate.

When I got to Cleveland I didn't do any play-by-play, I did a college scoreboard show on television, but I was the Cleveland Browns' public address announcer. When I went to New York, I didn't do any sports but I was the announcer for a show on NBC called "Hullabaloo."

When I went to San Francisco I started doing more. I did the San Francisco Giants pre-game on television. I was the San Francisco Warriors' public address announcer, the Oakland Raiders' public address announcer. I did Cal basketball. On television, I did play-by-play with Hall-of-Famer Rick Barry. Then I did Stanford football on television as well. When I came to Washington, I did Navy football for one year and then I took over Maryland in 1979. So this is my 28th year, but I had done other stuff before Maryland.

You have received numerous awards and accolades. What does that mean to you to be nationally honored?
Well, it's very humbling, when you consider all the people that do what I do, and there are a lot of guys out there. I think the ACC has the best group of broadcasters of any conference in the country. I remember up in New York back in December when I got the Chris Schenkle Award, the first thing that came to mind was how fortunate I am considering... Look who's in our conference. Woody Durham at North Carolina, Wes (Durham) at Georgia Tech, Gary Hahn at NC State, Mac McDonald at Virginia, my buddy Bob Harris at Duke.. the list goes on. These guys are legends, every single one. Every guy in our conference could have received that award, I feel, because they are that good. It's the same thing with me being identified with Maryland, every school is fortunate to have (one of) these guys as its voice.

I feel extremely honored to be able to get these awards. I don't think I'm worthy, but maybe they are running out of people to give them to, I don't know. If you stick around long enough, they've got to give you something.

Who has been the most exciting player to watch?
In football, I would say, Boomer Esiason, certainly, they've had other great quarterbacks, Neil O'Donnell, Scott Zolak, Scott McBrien; at running back, Lamont Jordan. Then there are some guys that were not first teamers, but guys that I really enjoyed watching play like Kevin Plank. Kevin Plank was a special teams captain at Maryland, he was a linebacker who played on special teams. He is now the president and C.E.O. of Under Armour. (Click here to listen to Johnny tell the story of how Kevin Plank got his start as an entrepreneur)

There were other guys, Brian Cummings he was a quarterback at Maryland. I could give you 50 names probably.

In basketball, Albert King, Len Bias, Buck Williams, Greg Manning, Juan Dixon, Steve Blake, Joe Smith, Keith Booth, Duane Simpkins, Tony Massenburg, those are just some of the guys that I really enjoyed. Not only did I enjoy watching them play, but they were just neat guys.

What's your most memorable moment in sports?
Well there's two. In football, it would be the comeback win over Miami in the Orange Bowl in 1984 when Miami was leading Maryland 31-0 at halftime. They came back to win the game. It was the greatest comeback, at that time, in Division I history. It was such an impressive win for me, especially since it was in Miami, my hometown. Then in basketball, it was winning the National Championship against Indiana in 2002 in Atlanta. That would certainly be the highlight in men's basketball.

Why did you choose to work with Maryland?
When I started doing the games in 1979, I was working for a local radio station and continued to do so until somebody else came along and they lost the rights. So I had a choice to make in 1991, whether to stay with the radio station or go to work directly for the school as its broadcaster and do its banquets and things like that. So, I chose in 1991 to leave the radio station I was working for and go to work directly for Maryland. Andy Geiger was the Athletic Director at the time. I had a wonderful relationship with him. I enjoyed the people; I enjoyed working with the student-athletes, really. I said, you know this is the place that I would like spending the rest of my broadcasting days, working for the university. I do more than just the games. I do the coaches shows on the radio and the coaches' shows on television with Gary Williams and Ralph Friegen. I host all their banquets. I just got through performing this past summer at a big gala that they had at the University of Maryland doing some songs and things like that. I take it as a great responsibility that I'm kind of like the spokesperson for the school. Anything they want to do outside of football and basketball, they let me know, and I do it for them. And I think a lot of schools have gone that way where the play-by-play people actually work for the school. They represent the university. You want to do it the right way; you want the right image, you want to have the right presentation. I couldn't be working for a finer university. The people are tremendous to work with. Debbie Yow, the Athletic Director, has been extremely kind to me in extending contract after contract. So I'll continue the rest of my broadcasting days, hopefully, until I retire, as their voice.