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APRIL 2023 13 BY JEFF WHITE I n the long history of University of Virginia athletics, few people have stood taller, lit- erally or figuratively, than Terry Holland. The 6-foot-7 Holland, who served UVA first as head men's basketball coach and later as director of athletics, passed away in Char- lottesville on Feb. 26, 2023, after a bout with Alzheimer's disease. He was 80 years old. The Cavaliers' current head coach, Tony Bennett, echoed what countless others have said about Holland, calling him a "gentle- man." Bennett, who's in his 14th year at Vir- ginia, passed Holland this season to become the winningest coach in program history. "He just made you feel good and peace- ful," Bennett said. "You just always wanted to put your arm around him and get a hug from him. He just had that way about him. … Certainly, I had the greatest respect for him basketball-wise, but the more I came to know him and even his wife, Ann, the more I loved them just as people." Holland coached Virginia from 1974-90, posting a record of 326-173. He guided the Wahoos to two Final Four berths (1981 and 1984), three consecutive ACC regular-season titles (1981-83), two Elite Eight appearances (1983 and 1989), one ACC Tournament championship (1976), one National Invitation Tournament crown (1980), and nine NCAA Tournament appearances. He was named ACC Coach of the Year in 1981 and 1982. "Coach Holland built the foundation of Vir- ginia basketball," said Rick Carlisle, a co-cap- tain of UVA's 1983-84 Final Four team and the current head coach of the NBA's Indiana Pac- ers. "More than anything, he cultivated an at- mosphere of respect and family, and positively impacted the lives of everyone he touched. An amazing man with a historic legacy." The brightest star during Holland's tenure was 7-foot-4 center Ralph Sampson, a three-time National Player of the Year. But Holland coached many other standouts, including Carlisle, Wally Walker, Marc Iava- roni, Jeff Lamp, Lee Raker, Othell Wilson, Jeff Jones, Jimmy Miller and Bryant Stith. "I think those people that think in terms of his impact on UVA basketball only, kind of miss the point," said Jones, who succeeded Holland as head coach at Virginia and now leads the program at Old Dominion. "What he did with UVA basketball impacted all of the athletic programs at UVA," Jones added. "Obviously, he and Ralph are always kind of attached at the hip, but there wasn't anybody [at UVA] that competed at that na- tional level the way Coach Holland's teams did before. He showed … that you didn't have to sacrifice academic excellence to compete." Miller, a starting forward on the team that advanced to the Final Four in 1984, is now the analyst on radio broadcasts of UVA men's basketball games. "He was a tremendous coach, he was a tremendous administrator, but I think of him as a husband, I think of him as a father," Miller said. "Off the court, he was a South- ern gentleman, mild-mannered, coat and tie, but, boy, you get him on the court, and he was as fiercely competitive as anybody." A native of Clinton, N.C., Holland played for head coach Lefty Driesell at Davidson College. After graduating in 1964, Holland joined Driesell's staff, and he succeeded Driesell as head coach in 1969. Holland, who was named Southern Con- ference Coach of the Year three times, came to UVA in 1974 after five seasons as David- son's head coach. It didn't take him long to work wonders at Virginia. In 1976, the sixth-seeded Cavaliers upset 17th-ranked North Carolina State, ninth-ranked Maryland and, finally, fourth-ranked North Car- olina on consecutive nights in Landover, Md., to capture the ACC Tournament for the first time. "He planted a seed for us, not just cultur- ally, but to say that, 'Hey, we can play and beat anybody,'" Walker said. Craig Littlepage had two stints as an as- sistant coach under Holland at Virginia. Lit- tlepage, who later succeeded Holland as the Cavaliers' AD, hired Bennett as head coach in the spring of 2009, and said Holland and Bennett were aligned philosophically. "It all started at the defensive end of the floor, in terms of the philosophy of playing the game and how their teams were going to be successful," Littlepage said. "Terry's teams were going to be successful only if they were going to be sound defensively and gritty de- fensively. Tony Bennett's teams at Washington State and before that when he coached with his dad at the University of Wisconsin, they were successful because they incorporated a very disciplined defensive style of play." Many of Holland's assistants went on to become head coaches, including Littlepage, Jones, Dave Odom, Seth Greenberg, Ricky Stokes and Jim Larrañaga. "He was just a true model, a mentor to me," said Larrañaga, who worked for Hol- land at Davidson and UVA and is currently head coach at the University of Miami, "and everything I've been able to do in coaching is really as a direct result of the example he set for me, the way he built his family." After retiring from coaching in 1990, Holland returned to Davidson to become AD. He then held that position at UVA for seven years (1994- 2001) before stepping down to serve as a spe- cial assistant to John T. Casteen III, then UVA's president. Holland focused on raising funds for John Paul Jones Arena, which opened in 2006. He later spent 10 years as athletics director at East Carolina University before retiring in 2014. "Terry probably was someone that was a natural as an administrator, as a director of athletics, because he also had the coach- ing background and he had the coaching instincts, and, as a result of that, he was trusted," Little-page said. "I think that that was something that people don't talk about as much: his administrative career. "Obviously, he coached here much longer than he was an administrator, but it can't be forgotten the work that he did that set the stage for the things that took place once he retired from the position of director of athletics." Holland and his wife returned to Char- lottesville in 2019, and he attended bas- ketball games at JPJ through the end of the 2021-22 season. His survivors include Ann; their daughters, Ann-Michael Holland and Kate Baynard; and three grandchildren. LEGENDARY LEGENDARY UVA Mourns The Loss of Terry Holland, An 'Amazing Man With A Historic Legacy'