Bio

William “Skip” Holland

Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College (1970-1972) / Football
Lucedale, Mississippi

“Big Skip Holland.” That’s the way every newspaper referred to William Holland by the end of the 1971 national championship football season. It was a description well earned by the 6-foot-4, 220-pound George County native. Besides his size, Holland was a big play defense of guy, always disrupting plays and finding his way to the ball.

Holland set the tone in the second game of the 1971 season, against Co-Lin. The Daily Herald wrote, “Holland turned in a tremendous performance. Holland made three unassisted tackles, nine assisted tackles, covered two opponent fumbles and was consistently playing tough in the Wolves backfield.” The Bulldogs won 30-7 and held Co-Lin to just 49 yards in rushing.

Holland made up the left side of one of the college’s toughest defenses. Altogether, the Bulldogs defense held eight teams under 14 points in a game. Gulf Coast also got four teams — East Mississippi, Southwest, Hines, Delta — under 100 yards of total offense for an entire game. These performances were the backbone of the Bulldogs’ perfect 11-0 season.

Gulf Coast and Holland faced the biggest challenge of the year in the national championship game on December 3 against Fort Scott (Kansas) Community College. The Greyhounds came into the game defending national champs, riding a 27-game winning streak and boasting of the most highly recruited running back (Tommy Reamon) in junior college football.

“ I told Holland before the game, ‘Your job is to stop Reamon,’” Coach George Sekul said after the game. And the Holland and Bulldog defense did, holding the talented back to just one touchdown.

The Savannah Morning News bitterly reported the following day, “It was Gulf Coast’s sticky defense it shut off Reamon’s outside runs, thus putting a damper on the Greyhounds offensive machine. Big Skip Holland did a fantastic job at the defensive end for Gulf Coast."

“Big Skip” finished his sophomore year being named All-State and second-team All-American. Perhaps his longest legacy is found in the Gulf Coast record book. More than 30 years after leaving Gulf Coast, Holland’s name still appears in the top 10 of most individual tackles and most assisted tackles in a season.

Holland went on to Delta State and majored in civil engineering. This led to a career in pipefitting and construction that took him across the country and into Canada. In 1978, he became an ordained Baptist preacher and has been a pastor in Mississippi for more than two decades as of 2005.