Doc Holliday and his posse saddle up for the 2010 football season
By Keith Morehouse
HQ 71 | AUTUMN 2010
The story of a dashing nickname didn’t come about quite like you might think.
Oh, it had the potential to be a good anecdote. Jim and Sally Holliday had a son on April 21, 1957, and they christened him John Holliday. You’d like to think the Hollidays were big fans of the Wild West era, and it would only be a matter of time before they saddled young John with the nickname “Doc,” right? You know, after the infamous Doc Holliday, who was one of the most feared gunfighters of his time, whose “shoot first and ask questions later” persona was the subject of dozens of books and movies. Doc Holliday rode with Wyatt Earp back in the days of the Wild West, and the folklore sometimes becomes entangled with the facts, which only makes the stories more interesting. The fact is, though, that the Hollidays had no intention of nicknaming their son “Doc.” No, this “Doc” moniker was born out of necessity.
“It was 1975 and I had just gotten to Morgantown,” Doc Holliday recalls. “Our offensive coordinator Joe Pendry gave me that nickname.”
Does that mean Coach Pendry was a fan of Western history?
“No, I just don’t think he knew my name.”
So he’s been “Doc” Holliday for 35 years, and as fate would have it, he does have a little bit of that gunfighter mentality in him. He and his namesake share the same no-nonsense, “my way or the highway” demeanor. He proved it this summer when he dismissed no fewer than five players for transgressions that violated the rules of his football program. It was the shot heard around the Shewey Building.
“Coach Holliday wants us to be the class of college football, and that’s what we should be,” senior Lee Smith says. “It’s a privilege to be a Marshall football player; it’s not a right. If you don’t live right, hey, go back to Florida.”
Strong words that back up a strong leader. There are no mixed messages here.
“He’ll tell you straight up,” senior wide receiver Courtney Edmonson says. “He’ll tell you how it is. He’s a great coach; all the coaches are good.”
This head coaching business is a new frontier for Holliday, who’s been coaching for nearly 30 years at West Virginia, North Carolina State and Florida. He hopes to return the Thundering Herd to its glory days, when Top 25 rankings, Heisman Trophy candidates, conference championships and bowl wins were almost taken for granted.
“Everybody says, ‘Doc, when are you going to win 10 or 11 games a year again like we used to?'” Holliday says. “I answer, ‘When I get some Chad Penningtons, Randy Mosses and Byron Leftwiches.’ Those kinds of guys step up and provide great leadership. That’s where it starts.”
There are other tendencies in the modern-day Doc Holliday which might evoke memories of the original “Doc.” In a gunfight, the winner is the last one standing. On the football field, Coach Holliday carries those same impassioned qualities that make good coaches.
“The only word that comes to mind is intensity,” Herd quarterback Brian Anderson says of Coach Holliday. “He’s a very intense guy and he demands it each and every time we come out on the field. He doesn’t say a whole lot during practice, but when he does, he’s definitely heard. Usually you’d rather him stand and watch than come over and start talking to you.”
But those same players that Holliday can break down with that laser-like stare of his would also take a bullet for their head coach. Holliday is the coach who invites the whole team over to his house for a cookout.
“Chemistry is big time,” senior defensive lineman Michael Janac says. “We go to church together, watch movies together. This year we’ve become one. Now when we get on the field everyone trusts each other, because we’ve all bonded.”
“There’s a lot more bonding going on,” adds tailback Martin Ward. “We’ve been able to get to know each other through our ups and downs and see how we react. We push our limits.”
Coach Holliday needs all the ammo he can carry into the daunting 2010 football season, with an opener against second-ranked Ohio State followed by the home opener against his alma mater and former team WVU. Talk about walking into a saloon outnumbered, but Doc’s not complaining.
“I don’t want to be the head coach anywhere where the expectations aren’t high,” Holliday says. “The Ohio State game is great exposure for our program, and then we play six straight bowl teams after that. We have to outwork people or we don’t have a chance.”
When he and his Herd run out onto the field for each game this season, it will be the realization of a dream for Doc Holliday.
“It’s what I’ve asked for,” Holliday says. “It’s what I’ve been working toward for 30 years, to get this opportunity.”
Maybe that Old West gunslinger theme works after all. You stare down your adversary, never taking your eyes off the target, and hope you’ve prepared a little better than the guy standing across from you. Doc Holliday goes into his first ever head coaching job with the reputation as a straight shooter. And every gunfighter can appreciate that.
