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Salute To A Legend

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By TOD McGINLEY Special to the Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 2, 2008

Back in Malden, Mass., in November of 1942, my father, Mac, won two tickets at the Malden Elks Club for the Boston College-Holy Cross football game, to be played at Fenway Park in Boston on Saturday, Nov. 28. The BC team was undefeated and leading the nation while featuring a powerful sophomore fullback named Mike Holovak, from the coal mining town of Lansford, Pa.

Because Holy Cross had a so-so team that year, having lost four or five games, Dad and I were sure that BC would have no trouble beating the Crusaders, from Worcester, Mass. Boy, were we wrong!

The contest turned out to be one of the biggest upsets in college football history, and when the smoke cleared, the score was Holy Cross 55, Boston College 12! Mac and I drove north back across the Charles River in a state of shock.

The BC Eagles were also dazed and stunned, and, fortunately, someone from the dressing room remembered to make a phone call to the Coconut Grove nightclub in downtown Boston and cancel the victory banquet scheduled there that evening - and it was a blessing they did. Nov. 28, 1942, is the very night that 492 people were trapped behind revolving doors and burned to death in one of the most horrendous fires in U.S. history.

After that terrible day, I got to see Holovak play for Boston College for two more years, as he earned All-American honors. He then followed Frank Leahy, his well-known coach, into the U.S. Navy. He commanded a PT boat in the Pacific and was credited with sinking at least 10 Japanese ships.

After the war, Mike played in the National Football League, first with the L.A. Rams and then with the Chicago Bears. He eventually went into coaching and took his first job back where he started, with the Boston College Eagles. He won Coach of the Year honors in 1954 at BC and is in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Holovak's successful career as a college coach ended when Billy Sullivan, the owner of the fledgling New England Patriots, hired him as head coach. That was the start of a career that covered more than 40 years in the NFL, as a coach and later as executive vice president of the Houston Oilers, now known as the Tennessee Titans.

Having watched his career from afar, I finally met the man at Sun City Center about a year and a half ago. I was in a local supermarket, and the pharmacist, Mike Oates, noticed the Boston College cap on my head. He asked if I had ever heard of his father-in-law, Mike Holovak, to which I replied, "Are you kidding!"

He then pointed out Mike and Pauline Holovak, who were shopping in the store at the time, and introduced me to them. They had moved into a gated community off Highway 301 - about three football fields from my residence.

Unfortunately, Mike was 87 then and suffering from early Alzheimer's disease. His wonderful wife invited me to visit with him several times since our meeting, and Coach Holovak really seemed to enjoy our chats, especially when I would bring up the old days in Boston.

Mike really lit up when I mentioned old names, among them Frank Leahy, Patriots field goal kicker Gino Cappeletti, and "Chucking" Charley O'Rourke, another Malden, Mass., native and BC quarterback.

I visited Mike a number of times until his death in January. I can report that even with his debilitating illness, Mike remained a warm and gracious individual. It was an honor for me to know, after all these years, this legendary gentleman of Boston College and the NFL.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tod McGinley and his wife of 54 years, Carolee, moved to Sun City Center from Boston 16 years ago. A retired salesman, McGinley, 82, graduated from his beloved Boston College in 1988 after 10 years of night school. He's the author of "Mulligan's Name Was Ambrose," a book of golf stories.

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