Hall of Honor
Jim Holland is a native of Fort Smith, Arkansas and graduated from Fort Smith High School in 1962. He entered college at Fort Smith Junior College (now UAFS) and was a four-sport letterman in basketball, baseball, track & field, and tennis. Holland finished his undergraduate work at Arkansas State Teachers College. While there he played basketball for one year and baseball his junior and senior years. He earned his BSE in 1966 and his MSE in 1970. His first coaching job was as the junior high basketball coach at Stuttgart, Arkansas, where the 1969 team was a state finalist. In 1970 he was hired to be the head basketball coach at Lonoke High School. He was the 6A Coach of the Year in 1972.
After a short coaching stint at Arkansas State University, Holland was hired by Hendrix College in 1975 to be the assistant men’s basketball coach and head track & field and cross country coach. After 16 years of assisting Cliff Garrison in the basketball program, 10 years coaching track and cross country and five years as golf coach, Hendrix hired him to be the head baseball coach. He was tasked with resurrecting a baseball program that had been absent from campus for 63 years. He coached the Warrior baseball program for eight years with their best year being the 1999 season, when they earned a berth in their first conference tournament and Holland was voted as the Coach of the Year in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference. Coach Holland retired from coaching in 2017 after a total of 45 years in the profession.
