(EDITOR'S NOTE: While the Coronavirus has brought athletic events at Augustana to a standstill, we are still going to populate our website with stories about people, events and circumstances that helped give our department the identity it enjoys today. We will not run these every day and the subjects will vary. Today our subject is Anthony Holman, a basketball player from the mid-1990s whose playing career at Augustana didn't turn out the way he envisioned but it led to a career in athletics…Today he is the Managing Director of Championships and Alliances, Operations and Playing Rules and Officiating for the NCAA.)
 

A chance meeting at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Joliet, Illinois may have been the turning point for Anthony Holman. Holman, a 1995 Augustana graduate who has worked his way into the higher echelon at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), thought his world was set, as he was getting ready to graduate from Lockport High School in the spring of 1991.
 
"I was all set to go to Winona State in Minnesota to play basketball," said Holman who parlayed a degree in political science and economics into a sterling professional career in athletic administration. "Everything was about basketball for me at that time and I didn't think about my future beyond sports. Then my dad ran into Cecil Youngblood at church one Sunday and everything changed."
 
Youngblood, who hailed from Joliet, was an assistant coach on Steve Yount's Augustana staff at the time and he was back home to visit family. That chance conversation got Holman thinking that maybe he needed to re-evaluate his plans.
 
"It was certainly a fortuitous meeting and something turned in me after talking to Cecil," said Holman. "He convinced me that Augustana was the place for me and it turned out that he was right in so many ways."
 
Youngblood, who mentored many an Augustana student during his time on the Vikings' staff, knew that Holman would flourish at Augustana. It turns out he was right but not exactly in the way that either of them envisioned.
 
Holman admits that the adjustment to college life was not easy and he found himself on the wrong end of the academic ledger after his first quarter. It was at this juncture where the turning point happened for him.
 
"I was at a crossroads," he said. "Obviously I did not adjust well to college life and I was academically ineligible but the guys on that team were so good to me. I never felt ostracized or shunned and not only did Coach Yount and Cecil keep me around the program but they made sure I was included in everything."
 
At that crucial juncture in his life, as a struggling 18-year old, Holman got the boost that he needed.
 
"They would not let me fail," he said with gratitude today, almost 30 years later. "I wasn't on the team but they never let me get away from the Augie basketball 'family'. That was a great bunch that we had and they helped me mature. I am still close to guys like Eric Rowell and Aben Cooper and I can't thank them enough for the influence they had on my life."
 
Eventually Holman realized that his basketball dreams were not going to end the way he wanted but again, influence from the Augustana community came to the surface.
 
"As a junior, I was looking forward to contributing on the court but it wasn't working out," he said. "I was living with five fraternity brothers in a house off campus and all of a sudden I realize that these guys know how to study. They knew what they wanted to do and they were a huge influence on my life."
 
On the front end of his college career, he had his basketball teammates keep him afloat and then he was sharp enough in the middle of his time at Augustana to pick up the lessons he learned from his housemates.
 
"It seemed like every time I needed a boost that someone was there to give me a hand," Holman commented. "I can't say enough about the liberal arts curriculum we had at Augustana because it exposed me to a lot of things and the variety forced me to think."
 
Holman's original plan called for him to go to law school but his earlier academic difficulties provided a roadblock that he had not counted on. Even though by the end of his college career he was a dean's list student, the slow start would come back to haunt him.
 
"I didn't get admitted," he said matter-of-factly. "So I had been thinking about a graduate program at the University of Iowa that would sort of bridge the way to law school."
 
Then, by his own words, "dumb luck" entered the picture and his athletic administrator's career was off. Once again, an Augustana connection proved invaluable. Mark Schwiebert was the mayor of Rock Island at the time and an Augustana graduate. Holman was doing some work for him and Schwiebert suggested that he look into an internship with the then-fledgling Quad Cities Sports Commission.
 
As is so often the case, one door opens another and Holman landed his first job as director of tickets and merchandise with the Quad City Mallards. The Mallards were a first year minor league hockey team just getting started in the fall of 1995 and Holman was hired by a man named Dan Cable. Cable ran a series of minor league sports teams through an organization called United Sports Ventures.
 
One of the hottest locations for USV was in Mobile, Alabama where minor league baseball (Mobile Bay Bears) and hockey (Mobile Mystics) was thriving. Holman was the director of merchandising and marketing. He also got a chance to work with the Senior Bowl, which was held annually in Mobile.
 
The four year run with USV set Holman up for the "single most difficult year" he ever experienced. It also may have been the single most important year of his burgeoning professional career. His connections with Augustana, with Mayor Schwiebert and with the Mallards made him a natural to become the first full-time executive director of the Quad Cities Sports Commission in the fall of 1998.
 
"When I landed that job it became clear to me that we needed something big. Something we could hang our hat on. We needed a signature event in the Quad Cities," he said.
 
What he came up with tested his patience, perseverance and resolve but it also provided him with a learning experience in how to attack (and solve) problems. Holman's answer to the question about a signature event was the Quad Cities Marathon, which has become a staple in the area's running community in late September each year.
 
"That was a tough year for me professionally but it was such a great learning experience," he said about dealing with the governments and agencies of two states and five cities. "I learned a lot about state and local governments and that set me up for the future."
 
His work with the Quad Cities Sports Commission caught the eye of Jim Unrath, who was the director of athletics at United Township High School in East Moline, Illinois at the time. A position opened up with the Illinois High School Association (I.H.S.A.) and Holman became a groundbreaker when he was the first "non-school person" to take a leadership position within the organization.
 
He was with the I.H.S.A. for nine years, until 2008 and he was grateful for the opportunity. He eventually became the assistant executive director but he knew that the chances of being the head of the organization were not good.
 
"The I.H.S.A. was not going to hire someone who didn't come out of the school ranks to be its leader," he said. "Our plans about going forward were going to clash a bit so it was best for me to move on. Working with the I.H.S.A. was great for me but it was time to move on."
 
At this point, he decided to "chase the money" and he admits that was probably not in his best interest. He ended up in the NBA with Maloof Sports & Entertainment and was affiliated with the Sacramento Kings of the NBA and the Sacramento Monarchs of the WNBA. He lasted one season and decided that the professional sports scene was not right for him.
 
He joined the NCAA in 2009 as an assistant director of championships and he chuckles at one of the main reasons he was able to land that job.
 
"When I was at the I.H.S.A. we sued the NCAA over the term 'March Madness' and I was involved in the ground floor of that lawsuit," he remembers. "We didn't exactly win the suit but I got to know some of the NCAA people and the process during our time in court. When the NCAA position opened up I am pretty sure that my involvement in that lawsuit actually worked in my favor."
 
He has been with the NCAA ever since and worked his way through four title changes until he ended up where he is today as the manager of championships and alliances.
 
He credits much of his success to his involvement in athletics and to the opportunities that were provided to him during his time at Augustana.
 
"I had a very good family background and I knew all about hard work from my mom and dad," he said. "From the first time I set foot on the Augustana campus I was fortunate to be around people who believed in me. Things didn't always turn out the way I wanted but the competitive nature of my peer group always brought out the best in me and I am forever grateful for that."