CHARLOTTESVILLE (WINA) – Up until this month when Tony Bennett eclipsed him, the former winningest coach in UVa basketball history passed away over the weekend. Terry Holland, who coached UVa basketball from 1974 to 1990 and won 326 games here, passed away Sunday at age 80. He had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2019, and former player and current physician Bobby Stokes said the disease took him a bit sooner than intended.
Stokes played for Coach Holland from 1975 to 1979, and was a first-year on that improbable 1976 ACC tournament winning team — a team that finished 4-8 and next to last in the regular season and became the first unranked team to beat 3 ranked teams to the tournament championship. Stokes calls Holland a great tactician who could develop any talent he had. He was also a master of teaching players and teams how to play together.
But Stokes told WINA News Coach Holland was a cheerleader for all endeavors in life that his assistants and players took. In fact, when he moved back to Charlottesville after retiring from his last job in 2013 as Athletics Director at East Carolina University, he asked Dr. Stokes to be his physician.
Dr. Stokes said, “He said, listen, I understand this could be a little difficult me being your coach. But you’re a physician, this what you trained for. I will do what you ask me to do and I will be a good patient.”
Dr. Stokes responded, “Well first thing you would do, get out there and run some sprints”, and Holland started laughing.
He became UVa’s all-time winningest basketball coach with 326 wins while coaching in seasons starting from 1974-to-1990. Current Head Coach Tony Bennett eclipsed that win number earlier this month. Holland went to his alma mater Davidson as Athletics Director from 1991-to-1994, before he returned to UVa as Athletics Director from 1995 to 2001 where he laid some groundwork for a new John Paul Jones Arena which opened in 2005.
He stepped down in 2001 and became Special Assistant to the President at UVa before leaving that post to become Athletics Director at East Carolina from 2004-to-2013.
He leaves behind wife, Ann; two children; and three grandchildren.
