By Bob Anderson, ULM Hall of Fame Sports Information Director
Benny
Hollis was a fixture on the university's sports scene for 24 years, a
winning coach and the most successful athletics director ULM ever had. He died March 12 in his home at the age of 71.
A native of Bernice, Hollis came to what was then Northeast Louisiana State College in the late 1950's and graduated in 1961. Although he worked at other institutions for short periods, he never lost his love for his alma mater.
Hollis worked at ULM in four capacities-basketball team manager, assistant basketball coach, head coach and director of athletics. In all four positions, he was bigger than his job. As the student manager of the basketball team, he also served as head coach of the junior varsity team and acting assistant coach of the varsity under legendary Coach Lenny Fant, who had no official
assistant.
After receiving his bachelor's degree, Hollis began work on his master's and was head coach at St. Matthew's High School, now St. Frederick, and then was the Neville High coach for five years. His
six prep teams had an .851 winning percentage, never finished lower
than second in their districts, twice went to the state finals, winning
one state championship, and never lost more than five games and never
won less than 22.
After a three-year stint at Louisiana Tech as assistant coach to Scotty Robertson, he returned to ULM in 1970 as Fant's official assistant, serving in that post for nine years. During those nine years as assistant and his two years as head coach, ULM never had a losing season.
In 1976, Hollis became assistant athletics director to John David Crow, then acting AD, while continuing to serve in his basketball capacities. He
was the first, and perhaps only, assistant coach to serve as president
of the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches, and helped organize
the Trans-America Conference and serve as its vice president.
In 1980, he became the official athletics director. One of his first major achievements was to engineer Northeast's acceptance into the Southland Conference, giving the school's football team a conference home.
Hollis would serve as athletics director for 14 years and those 14 years were the most successful in ULM's sports history. During
this time, the university won seven Southland Conference All-Sports
Trophies in men's sports and five in women's sports; four football conference titles and the national 1-AA championship in 1987; the men's basketball team won five conference championships and went to as many NCAA Tournaments; the women's basketball team won four league crowns and went to the NCAA Final Four in 1985; the baseball team
went to one NCAA tournament and in track,
the men's team finished in the NCAA top 20 three times and the women once.
While ULM was in 1-AA football, Coach Hollis served on the NCAA 1-AA Committee and was its chairman for many years. One of his last major accomplishments was coordinating the school's drive to achieve 1-A football status, which it did in 1994.
Coach Hollis was a member of the ULM Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame.
He
is survived by his devoted wife De'Lane, son Jay and wife Jennifer, and
daughter Bonnie Texada and husband Dr. Richard Texada.
Many former ULM players and coaches were in attendance for his funeral last week, including John and David Pickett, Kenny Natt, Roger Green, Jamie Mayo, Keith Richard, Mike Vining, Dave Darouse, Carl Kilpatrick, Roger Stockton, Bob Boseman, Dave Ferrell, Jerry Walker, Terry Martin, Bob Carson, Robert Williamson, Steve Kamerman, Charles Harold, Tillman Givens and many more.
