John Klein: Holliday excelled on diamond, gridiron

BY JOHN KLEIN Senior Sports Columnist
Thursday, October 20, 2011

STILLWATER — Oklahoma State was talking about a minor league baseball player being the OSU quarterback about a decade ago.

Matt Holliday, a superstar high school quarterback at Stillwater High School, signed to play football for the Cowboys but opted for a deal with the Colorado Rockies in 1998.

Holliday bounced around the minors and hit .253 for the Tulsa Drillers in 2003. There were always rumors at the time that he might go back to football.

He didn’t. A year later he hit .290 with 14 home runs for the Colorado Rockies and Holliday has gone on to become a fourtime All-Star for the Rockies and St. Louis Cardinals.

Holliday is in the World Series this week as another former minor leaguer from Oklahoma, who did make the switch back to college football, is leading Oklahoma State in an important game at Missouri on Saturday.

Brandon Weeden, OSU’s star quarterback from Edmond, was in the minor leagues with the New York Yankees before he jumped to college football.

Considering the success of Weeden with the Cowboys, he’s 17-2 as OSU’s quarterback, more than a few folks have wondered what type of player Holliday would have been for OSU.

“He very well could have been a great college quarterback, too,” said former Stillwater High School football coach Bill Defee. “He could make all the throws when he was in high school. Just about every college coach in the nation felt he could be a great college player, too.

They all came to visit me at that time.

“Plus, he was such a hard worker. He was a great kid and he’s still a very humble and giving person these days."

We’re guessing Holliday would have been a college football superstar, too. Several college football coaches, who were recruiting Holliday out of high school, rated him on the same level with Henryetta’s Troy Aikman as an Oklahoma high school quarterback.

“He was a special athlete but I always knew in his heart he wanted to play baseball,” said Defee, who coached Stillwater for 18 years and was inducted into the Oklahoma Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2002. “Baseball was first on his list but he could have done just about anything he wanted in football, too."

Holliday was a 6-foot-4, 220-pound quarterback with a deadly accurate rocket arm at Stillwater.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that he would have been a star quarterback in college and the NFL had he chosen football,” said Gary Gardner, who coached Holliday in high school baseball.

“There’s no doubt that he would have put in the time and effort to be the best football player he could be just like he has with baseball.

“He had all of the skills you want in a football or baseball player. But, what set him apart, was his work ethic. He worked at it. I never doubted he would be a major league star or an NFL quarterback. There was no doubt you were talking about a special player."

Holliday threw for 6,211 yards and 68 touchdowns in high school, including a then-state record of 35 TDs as a junior. Holliday engineered a 22-point fourthquarter comeback to beat Union, 43-42, in a 1997 game considered by many one of the greatest Oklahoma high school games in history.

Every school in the country wanted him for football and baseball.

Major league baseball clubs loved him, too.

The only reason he was taken in the seventh round is that most baseball execs believed he would opt for OSU — Holliday’s father was the baseball coach at Oklahoma State at the time.

It has worked out for Holliday and Weeden. Holliday has gone on to become the kind of baseball star many envisioned. Weeden has made the switch to football so successfully that many now believe he is a cinch first or second-rounder in next spring’s NFL draft.

What kind of college quarterback would Holliday have been?

“Unbelievable,” said Tony Holt, a Stillwater High School coach who coached Holliday in American Legion baseball. “He was an incredible high school quarterback.

I know there are a lot of high school quarterbacks who do not become stars in college football.

“But, Matt was one of those guys that had all of the talent and worked harder than anybody. Everybody that was around him when he was in high school will tell you the same thing. He was the hardest worker I’ve ever seen. He didn’t rely just on his talent. That’s why when he was in the minor leagues, and struggling a little bit, I knew he would work hard enough to make it."

Gardner spent 11 years as the Stillwater High School coach. During that time, he coached three future major leaguers including Holliday, Josh Fields and Brett Anderson.

Fields, like Holliday, was also a quarterback. Fields went on to quarterback Oklahoma State and lead the Cowboys to two bowl games and the stunning 2001 Bedlam victory over Oklahoma.

“I think it is interesting that all three of those kids came from families of coaches,” said Gardner.

“They all had the physical tools. That’s always very important.

“But, all three of those guys had that little extra you need to make it at the major league level. They had tremendous talent that was enhanced by the way they worked."

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