Another sad chapter for Holieway
On a hot Sunday in June, I spent more than two hours with Jamelle Holieway and a couple hundred of our closest friends, tucked into the tiny Sooner Schooner store on Lindsey Street in Norman.
Assembled was a remarkable collection of OU football heroes: the Sooners’ five national championship quarterbacks, together for a book-signing. Actually, all five never were together — Jimmy Harris had to leave for a plane before Josh Heupel arrived from his football camp. But the persistent fan could get autographs from all five: Claude Arnold (1950), Harris (1955-56), Steve Davis (1974-75), Holieway (1985) and Heupel (2000).
Of the five, I’d only dined with one. Holieway. In January 1985, I accompanied OU recruiting coordinator Scott Hill on a whirlwind, week-long trip, capped by a Thursday night dinner with an OU booster and Holieway, then a high school senior at Banning High School in the Los Angeles suburb of Wilmington. One of the two or three times I’ve ever eaten lobster.
You know the rest. Less than a year later, Holieway quarterbacked the Sooners to a 25-10 Orange Bowl victory over Penn State and placed himself into college football lore, as a true freshman who led a national championship team. Holieway was a landmark QB, his career short-circuited by a horrific knee injury in 1987 against Oklahoma State, but always remembered as the optioneer who took over for Troy Aikman in that magic year of 1985.
In the years that followed, Holieway seemed to struggle. Run-ins with the law. Traffic fines, minor drug offenses, just sort of a wayward existence.
But on that hot June day, Holieway could not have been more accommodating. He was charming with the fans, even working the line to get autographs rather than sitting at the table waiting. Holieway was deferential to the other title-winning quarterbacks. I enjoyed chatting with Holieway. I think I was like a lot of people that day who hoped that maybe Holieway had turned around his life.
Then came word Tuesday that Holieway and a female companion had been arrested Sunday in McAlester, where he has been living, on a complaint of shoplifting from a Wal-Mart. They also had outstanding warrants and were taken to the Pittsburg County Jail, where they posted bail.
It made me sad. I see all the OU football players who used their college football careers as a springboard to a productive, fruitful life. Dewey Selmon and Steve Owens and J.C. Watts and hundreds of others, including quarterbacks named Arnold, Harris, Davis and Heupel.
I don’t know why Holieway hasn’t grown up, why he hasn’t been able to take command of his life. Even Charles Thompson, Holieway’s old teammate, who wrote a scathing autobiography about their old shenanigans and who ended up in federal prison for drug trafficking, seems to have produced a productive life.
Holieway isn’t a young man anymore. He turned 42 a couple of weeks after that autograph signing. He’s got a name that still resonates with a good many Oklahomans. He still can do something with his life. But the clock is ticking.
Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
I am way to young to remember the great eighties of ou football but I can remember my dad telling me stories of the selmon brothers and little Joe Washington and even hollaway,and it’s so sad to have these Heros fall from grace. I hope that jamiele can turn his life around and end this cycle of dispair.
Message to Jamelle, paraphrasing Marsellus Wallace (Pulp Fiction): “You lost all your Sooner privileges.”
I would guess this either spells the end of Jamelle getting invited to Sooner football events or it begins a long period of exile.
Sad story.
I personally believe Charles turned out OK because he had to take responsibility for his actions back in the 80’s but Charles kept quiet and Jamelle never had to be responsibile for his own actions. Maybe that will change now.
Guy at work says hes an addict and has got one of kids taken from him.He can’t stay clean won’t keep a job.His old teammates need to get in touch with him. He needs help badly.
Jamelle has a problem with Meth and weed. His female companion is the mother of one of his children who happens to be a very good student and budding athlete. It is my understanding that Jamelle was working on a trash truck in a small town east of McAlester that shall remain nameless. I also understand that Jamelle is trying to clean up and has been doing much better with his addiction issues as of late. It’s hard to make a living working a small town trash truck with child support to pay, the larceny might have been for items they really needed…not condoning his actions but until you walk a mile in his shoes…
Everyone makes mistakes. He’s always nice, respectful when I saunter up and will (clearly) speak with anyone. Hope he gets it worked out and wish him the best.
Why can’t someone from the University, or even Coach Switzer step in and try to do something with him or for him, have a mini intervention, help this lost soul out? He needs support from his Sooner family.
Jamelle is at least 40 now. The responsibility to change his life is solely on him now, not the people he went to college with 20 years ago.
Jamelle is one of my all-time favorite Sooners. I got his autograph at a party in Miami before the national championship game in 2000. Very polite, engaging, and genuine. I believe that people can turn their lives around, even after many stumbles. I am saying a special prayer for him today.