Condredge Holloway Jr. (born January 25, 1954) is a former

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Am ...

for the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th sta ...

and later in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a c ...

. Holloway was one of the first African-American quarterbacks to receive national exposure. His nickname at Tennessee was the "Artful Dodger".Fuchs, Cynthia
"The Color Orange: The Condredge Holloway Story."
''www.popmatters.com'', February 21, 2011. Retrieved October 7, 2015.

Early years and college

Holloway was born to Condredge Holloway Sr., and Dorothy Holloway. Condredge's grandfather on his father's side was born a slave, but was emancipated as a child in 1865. Dorothy was hired to work at the

Marshall Space Flight Center The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville postal address), is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. As the largest NASA center, MSFC's firs ...

in Huntsville in 1962, becoming the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

employee of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

. Holloway starred as a high school

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player at Lee High School in Huntsville, where he was named to the ABCA High School All-America Baseball Team. He was selected as a

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists wh ...

by the

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in ...

in the 1971 Major League Baseball draft. Holloway was Montreal's first pick, and he was the fourth player selected overall. However, Holloway's mother, insisting her son attend college, refused to sign the contract (Condredge was 17, too young to sign a contract under Alabama law) and instead he went to

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...

. In so doing Holloway became the first African-American to start at the quarterback position in a

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

school. In addition to being the first black quarterback at

and in the Southeastern Conference, Holloway also was the first black baseball player in

history. The outstanding prospect bypassed a baseball career, and Holloway opted instead, for a two-sport collegiate career and went on to excel on the diamond. He garnered All-SEC and All-America honors as a shortstop in 1975 and finished with a .353 career batting average. Holloway — still the owner of Tennessee's longest hitting streak at 27 games — was selected to Tennessee's All-Century Baseball Team, making him the only Tennessee student-athlete named to all-century squads in both baseball and football. In his three seasons (1972–74) as a starter, Holloway directed the Vols to the 1972 Astro-Bluebonnet, 1973 Gator, and

1974 Liberty Bowl The 1974 Liberty Bowl was a college football postseason bowl game played on December 16, 1974, in Memphis, Tennessee. In the 16th edition of the Liberty Bowl, the Tennessee Volunteers defeated the Maryland Terrapins, 7–3. Background Maryland ...

s and an overall record of 25-9-2. He ended his career with the best interception-to-attempt ratio in Tennessee history, throwing just 12 interceptions in 407 collegiate attempts. During his three seasons, he completed 238 of 407 passes for 3,102 yards and 18 touchdowns, and rushed 351 times for 966 yards and nine touchdowns.

Canadian Football League

After leading the Volunteers to three

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

appearances from 1972–74, Holloway was drafted by the NFL in 1975—but only in the twelfth round, as a

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

, by the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

(few pro teams had

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

quarterbacks at that time). Instead, Holloway went to the

, playing for the

Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...

starting in 1975. Later, he moved to the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the CFL East Division, East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based i ...

, capturing the

CFL's Most Outstanding Player The Most Outstanding Player Award is annually awarded to the best player in the Canadian Football League. The two nominees for the award are the Terry Evanshen Trophy winner from the East Division, and the Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy winner fro ...

award in 1982 and guiding the Argos to a

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

championship the following season—Toronto's first title in 31 years. Holloway finished his career with the

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first seas ...

and was inducted into the

Canadian Football Hall of Fame The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about ...

in 1999.

After football

Currently, Holloway is the assistant athletic director at the University of Tennessee. Holloway is a co-owner of D1 Sports Training in Huntsville, Alabama. In 1996, he was part of the

SEC Football Legends SEC Football Legends is an annual award program of the Southeastern Conference designed to honor outstanding former college football players from each of the conference's fourteen member institutions. Begun in 1994, the Legends Dinner featuring vi ...

, representing Tennessee. In 2010, he was selected to the 1970s all-decade team of Madison County, Alabama, high school basketball players by ''

The Huntsville Times ''The Huntsville Times'' is a thrice-weekly newspaper published in Huntsville, Alabama, and printed in Birmingham, Alabama. It also serves the surrounding areas of north Alabama's Tennessee Valley region. The ''Times'' formerly operated as an a ...

''. On February 20, 2011,

ESPN Films ESPN Films, formerly known as ESPN Original Entertainment (EOE), is an American production company which produces and distributes sports films and documentaries. It is owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (wh ...

released ''The Color Orange: The Condredge Holloway Story''. It was produced and narrated by country music star

Kenny Chesney Kenneth Arnold Chesney (born March 26, 1968) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He has recorded more than 20 albums and has produced more than 40 Top 10 singles on the US ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs and Country ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holloway, Condredge 1954 births American players of Canadian football American football quarterbacks Tennessee Volunteers football players Tennessee Volunteers football coaches Tennessee Volunteers baseball players Canadian football quarterbacks Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Player Award winners Toronto Argonauts players Ottawa Rough Riders players BC Lions players Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees Players of American football from Alabama Sportspeople from Huntsville, Alabama Living people African-American players of Canadian football 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople