Tennessee will open its 2024 campaign against Chattanooga at Neyland Stadium on Aug. 31.
In anticipation of the season opener, VolReport is highlighting a former Vols player whose jersey number matches the amount of days until kickoff.
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With seven days to go, Condredge Holloway, who was the first black player to start at quarterback for an SEC team and earned the moniker, "The Artful Dodger" for his ability to elude tacklers during his three-year career at Tennessee between 1972-74, is selected.
Holloway was a two-sport athlete at Lee High School in Huntsville, Alabama, starring in both football and baseball. He was selected by the Montreal Expos as the fourth overall pick in the 1971 Major League Baseball Draft, but turned his focus on college at the urging of his mother, Dorothy Holloway, who broke barriers of her own as NASA's first black employee at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville in the 1960s.
With the decision made to play college football, Holloway's next step was deciding where to play. It came down to in-state powerhouse Alabama and Tennessee. Legendary Crimson Tide head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant made a push for Holloway. Even infamous Alabama governor George Wallace, who famously stood in front of the school and openly declared his support for segregation, called Holloway up and made a case for him to play for Alabama.
The clincher came when Bryant told Holloway he wanted him to play another position, stating that Alabama wasn't ready for a black quarterback. Bill Battle, who had just finished his first season as the Vols head coach, was willing to give him a fair shot at quarterback.
It proved to be a good fit for both. Holloway was relegated to Tennessee's JV team due to NCAA rules barring freshmen from playing, but it didn't stop Vols fans from wanting to watch him play.
More than 30,000 of them showed up to see Holloway dazzle in a freshman game against Notre Dame at Neyland Stadium in 1971. It was a preview for what was to come a year later.
Holloway made his first start in the Vols' nationally televised season opener against Georgia Tech at Grant Field in Atlanta and led Tennessee to a convincing 34-3 victory. One week later vs. Penn State, Holloway extended a late drive by escaping the grasp of would-be tacklers, pitching the ball to Haskel Stanback at the last second to set the Vols up inside the 5-yard line.
Stanback scored on the next play to put the Nittany Lions away in a 28-21 win in the first-ever night game at Neyland Stadium.
Holloway guided Tennessee to a 10-win season, its only losses coming to Auburn and Alabama by one score. The following season, Holloway accounted for a career-high 1,149 passing yards and 10 touchdowns while adding another 433 yards rushing and four scores, earning First Team All-SEC recognition.
Two of Holloway's most memorable performances came during his senior year in 1974. First in the Vols' opener against No. 11 UCLA, Holloway exited the game in the first quarter with a shoulder injury and was taken to the hospital for further evaluation.
The outlook for the Vols was even more bleak when the trailed 17-10 in the second half. Then Holloway emerged from the tunnel to a roaring ovation at Neyland Stadium, re-entered the game and capped a scoring drive in the final minutes by flipping over defenders for the touchdown that resulted in a 17-17 draw.
Nearly two months after his week 1 heroics, Tennessee reeling after losing three of its previous five games heading into its game against Clemson. The Vols were starring down their fourth loss until Holloway engineered a late drive that ended in a touchdown to pull them within one.
Instead of settling for another tie, Battle opted to go for the win on a two-point conversion. That decision looked in jeopardy when the Tigers' defense closed in on Holloway, but he reversed his field and with a defender wrapped around his legs, heaved a pass to Larry Seivers in the end zone to pull out a thrilling 29-28 win.
Holloway didn't give up baseball. He had an equally impressive career as a shortstop on Tennessee's baseball team and was an All-American. His consecutive hit streak of 27 games stood for nearly 50 years before Blake Burke broke the record in 2024.
Football remained in his future, though. After pacing the Vols to three bowls and 29 wins, Holloway was taken in the 12th round by the New England Patriots in the 1975 NFL Draft but was ahead of his time as a mobile quarterback. He instead joined the Ottawa Rough Riders in the Canadian Football League.
Holloway spent 12 years in the CFL with three different teams with his most notable years coming with the Toronto Argonauts where he was named the league's Most Outstanding Player in 1982 and helped win the Grey Cup in 1983--the Argonauts first in more than 30 years. He was inducted to the CFL Hall of Fame in 1999.
Holloway's contributions at Tennessee have been memorialized, too. He was one of four former black Vols football players to be honored with bronze statues outside of Gate 21 at Neyland Stadium in 2021.
In the second game of the 2023 season, Tennessee wore alternate uniforms that served as a callback to Holloway's playing days.
Holloway combined for 4,068 passing and rushing yards and 27 touchdowns over three seasons as the Vols' starting quarterback.
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