Mike Holovak made me a Patriots fan.
His attitude was to work with what he had available. Instructed by underfunded, Billy Sullivan, to conserve string, bubblegum wrappers, and store coupons, while coaching too, he also had to put a Team on the field.
Billy and the Pats were never able to afford to sign any prominent draftees, but Mike Holovak persevered, instead of making excuses. He got the absolute totally most out of the limited talent he had; and that he found on the scrapheap.
He made Nick Bouniconti, a totally undersized MLB into a Hall of Famer. Nick was ignored by the other NFL clubs even though he starred at Notre Dame because he was so small. By the end of his career he captained the "No-Name Defense to the currently only undefeated, untied club in NFL history. Mike could distinguish the difference between the size of the dog in a fight and the fight in the dog.
Nick was so typical of the guys that Holovak managed to discover in waiver wires and overlooked talents. He found a pair of DTs who were too short and undersized and coached them up, to make several AFL-ALL star teams. He found an over the hill DE, forcibly retired (ie cut) from pro football, and got several years out of Bob Dee. He developed one of his old BC defensive players Larry Eisenhauer, into a legitimate pro football DE, who excelled until he tore up a knee. He found another at Holy Cross in Jon Morris, and he developed Tommy Neville. Babe Parilli was a washed up QB out of the NFL when Mike saw something and resurrected his career.
For a franchise that could never dream of shopping at Nieman-Marcus, Mike Holovak was absolutely brilliant at finding bargains at Filene's bargain basement,and then winning with hsi findings.
His under-talented but overly plucky teams found a way to win even if they did not belong on the same field with many of the Teams they beat. That was what made me an original Pats Fan.
BTW... Mike Holovak guest wrote one of those Sport books. You know the type; Mike Holovak as told to ...
When I was a kid I read it, but I don't remember exactly the title or when it was ghost written. I found it fascinating as he talked about lots of the weird events that are associated with the sad sack and mostly inept Patriots off field occurrences. For example, Larry Eisenhauer used to head butt the walls and lockers in the locker room until he did it one time without his helmet on... Then there were the off-season wrestlers who used ot practice their moves and wrecked the locker room too. Eventually Billy decreed he couldn't afford the repairs. Do any of you recall that book??
