Joe Holloway, a Jackson native, is honored for his contributions as a high school coach, primarily girls basketball, and his on-going radio career as a sports broadcaster and talk-show host.
Born in Jackson, he is a graduate of Jackson High School (1969) and Union University (1973). He played youth baseball and junior high basketball and football, but multiple injuries led him to focus on managing, then coaching.
He was 15 when his first coaching job was with an 8-9 Southern League baseball team for the Jackson Recreation and Parks Department. It won the championship, and Holloway was hooked.
“I think I was born to be a coach,” he said. “I would sit in class and draw plays and daydream about sports.”
But his work as a supervisor at the recreation department opened the door for him to become superintendent of the recreation department in Kingsport, TN in 1975. He enjoyed the work, but coaching was in his blood.
“Mr. Thurman Reynolds, principal at North Side, talked me into coming back to Jackson, getting my teaching certificate and coaching in the school system,” Holloway said. He earned teacher certifications in 10 subjects, such as economics, biology and personal finance, and wound up coaching every high school sport except wrestling, soccer and bowling.
“If Mr. Reynolds needed a sport started, I got the call,” Holloway said, laughing. “I started tennis and cross country at North Side.”
He began his coaching career in the Madison County school system in 1978 when he became head girls and boys basketball coach and assistant football coach at North Side Junior High. He moved over to North Side High in 1982 as head girls basketball coach.
That’s when North Side and Holloway made headlines on the basketball court. The 1982-83 girls team was small but talented. It earned the nickname “Smurfs” in reference to a popular television series about “a fictional colony of small, blue, humanoid creatures.” North Side wore powder-blue uniforms, the same color as the Smurfs, and moved quickly on the court.
Led by Angela Godwin, Shea Piercey and point guard Allyson Sikes, the Smurfs put together a 26-5 record and No. 4 state ranking. They beat Chester County three times, including the Class AA district championship, but lost a heartbreaker in six overtimes to McNairy, 87-85, in the region semifinals. The next season they made it to the state tournament for the first time since 1959, beat Springfield but lost in the semifinals of Class AAA .
The winning continued, and North Side made it back to state in 1986-87 behind the talents of Kristen Goehring, who signed with Ole Miss, and Angie Waldon. The sixth-ranked Maidens lost in the state quarterfinals, 28-27, to Shelbyville, the nation’s No. 1 team, and finished 31-4. The next season North Side was ranked No. 25 in the USA Today national rankings and advanced to the state semifinals before losing to Oak Ridge to finish 30-4.
Holloway had a 540-286 record (.654 winning percentage) as a head basketball coach. He was The Jackson Sun Coach of the Year three times. And he was coach of the year in the district 11 times and in the region four times. His teams won three regional championships and eight district titles, and he has received numerous other awards. He is proud of the fact that he received only four technical fouls in his coaching career.
Holloway, 72, also taught and coached at South Side High, Liberty Tech and North Parkway Middle School during his 30-year career in the Madison County school system. He retired in 2007 but has since taught and coached at eight schools in middle and west Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi. He has a state Class A championship ring from Smithville, Miss., where he was assistant softball coach.
All the while he has kept his hand in the broadcasting world, working radio coverage of local high school and basketball games for 50 years. He and Tom Britt broadcast NAIA National Tournament games at Oman Arena for 21 years. Holloway has been a guest speaker numerous times at coaching clinics and receives calls from young coaches wanting advice on a regular basis.
“At least I don’t get technical fouls broadcasting,” Holloway said. “But I still have the coach in me. I think a good coach is a teacher of life. That’s what is important. Athletics is a wonderful way to teach life and business.”
Holloway and his wife Susan will celebrate their 17th wedding anniversary in July. They met when both were teachers at Liberty Tech and married less than three months after their first date. He has a daughter, Megan Holloway, and she has a son, Brad Kelly.
Joe Holloway joins Drae Bowles, Audrey (Hazlehurst) Davis, Greg Goff and Joshua Holmes as the newest members of the Jackson-Madison County Sports Hall of Fame, when the 38th class is inducted at 6:30 p.m., April 11, at the Carl Perkins Civic Center.
Mike and Jan Kelley will be the recipients of the 2024 Billy Schrivner Distinguished Service Award, and Brevin Knight, broadcast analyst with the Memphis Grizzlies, will serve as guest speaker.
For tickets and table information, call Beth Sedberry at 731.616.8558.
(PHOTO: Joe Holloway)
