The day I got the best of Barney — and inspired his career game

Barney Holland and son David Holland at an Oregon football game in 2019 (Courtesy David Holland)

By Bob Robinson

(Editor’s note: Robinson, now 87, wrote sports for Oregon newspapers for 42 years, the last 37 at The Oregonian. “Robbie” was the paper’s beat writer for the Trail Blazers when they won the NBA championship in 1977. The Central High and U of O grad was a renowned golf writer at The Oregonian and is the author of four books.)

Bob Robinson

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When Barney Holland died on July 21 at 89, it brought a flood of memories to sports followers in Oregon — including me.

During a long high school basketball coaching career at Lebanon, North Eugene and Aloha, the former University of Oregon athlete compiled a record of 406-224 (.644) and won three state championships and seven league titles.

Holland’s 1988-89 Aloha High team. Holland coached high school basketball in the state of Oregon from 1958-90 with the exception of three years as a college assistant at Oregon (Courtesy David Holland)

Holland earned several individual awards, too, including McDonald’s National Coach of the Year selection in 1977 after his North Eugene team won the second of back-to-back state AAA titles and lost only one of 54 games over two seasons, with All-American Danny Ainge leading the way. Holland always downplayed his role in his teams’ success. More than once he said, “The players deserve the credit; they did the work."

Barney and his North Eugene state championship team in 1977. Danny Ainge is No. 22 (Courtesy David Holland)

As a sportswriter for The Oregonian, I had written about Holland — who also served as assistant coach for three years for the Ducks under Jim Haney from 1978-81 — and his teams a few times as they were among the state’s best prep programs for an extended period. His passing brought to mind an experience I had with him long before that while we were at Oregon — he a junior and me a freshman.

Holland with North Eugene forward Tim McConnell — who went on to play at Creighton — in 1974

I was two years behind Holland in school and had watched him play for Marshfield in the 1949 state championship game against Roosevelt. The Pirates lost, but he was a first-team all-tournament selection,.

Barney was a starter at Oregon, a guard who was a good passer, a solid defender and a smart player. A lot of times, he set up the plays for the Webfoots. I remember a Civil War game at McArthur Court during his senior year. Oregon State had a really good team, led by Swede Halbrook, Bill Toole and Ron Robins.  Oregon got a two-point lead early in the second half and decided to hold the ball until the Beavers came out of the zone. For about nine minutes, Barney stood with the ball under his arm near midcourt — for a minute, one of his teammates sat down on the floor — and Oregon State coach Slats Gill let it go. I never understood why. Oregon wound up winning the game 42-40.

The occasion I remember involving Holland and myself was an Oregon varsity basketball practice early in early 1953. He was a starting guard on that team and I was at that practice as a lowly scrub on the UO Frosh, recruited with other freshmen to scrimmage against the varsity in preparation for its game at Washington State two days later.

I was matched in the scrimmage against Holland, who also was a backup quarterback to George Shaw on the Oregon football team. Holland, in fact, threw a touchdown pass to Shaw for what would be the game-winning score in a 13-7 upset of seventh-ranked Southern Cal at Multnomah Stadium in ’53.

Holland was a two-sport player at Oregon — a guard in basketball and a quarterback in football (Courtesy David Holland)

I’m not suggesting we gave the varsity much of a challenge in that scrimmage, and Holland eluded me a couple of times for easy layups. But then a strange thing happened. I had the ball and noticed that he was playing off of me as I got within about 20 feet of the basket. So I sank a shot from there and raced to the other end of the court feeling a moment of joy.

The next time we had the ball, Holland again played back, seemingly daring me to shoot. I'm sure he thought I wouldn't fire from long distance again. But I did, and the ball swished without touching the rim.

When we got the ball again, Holland came out to meet me. I sensed that he meant business. I signaled for a teammate to screen for me and Holland went behind the screen. That left me with just enough time to fire another bomb. In it went, and varsity coach Bill Borcher blew a whistle to end the practice. Then he shouted, "Barney, I need to talk to you."

Before heading downstairs to the McArthur Court locker room, I lingered and watched from across the court as Borcher appeared to be lecturing Holland. I imagined that he was asking how he could allow a lowly freshman to score like that against him.

What happened at Pullman, Wash., two days later delighted me. Holland erupted for a career-high 32 points and led the Webfoots to victory.

Holland drives for two of his career-high 32 points in a game against Washington State (Courtesy David Holland)

Years later, after Holland had retired from coaching, I happened to be paired in a foursome with him at a golf outing. When we had a delay on a tee while we waited for the fairway to clear, I couldn't resist telling the story of how I inspired Barney to play his career game.

"I don't remember that," he said.

I didn't believe him and told him so. He just grinned and changed the subject.

(A celebration of life for Barney Holland will be held Sunday at 1 p.m. at The Reserve Vineyards and Golf Club.)

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