Book Review — #THEHOLLOWAY: The Unconventional Path of Mike “Mouse” Holloway

I CAN’T THINK of any coach — or athlete for that matter — who wrote an autobiography in the prime of his career, especially since there’s undoubtedly much more to come in that career. So, when Mike “Mouse” Holloway, the highly successful coach of the men’s and women’s teams at the University of Florida, puts pen to paper to tell his life story, one has to take notice.

The bulk of the book centers around how those Gator teams did each year from 2002 to the present — the SEC championships and the NCAA indoor and outdoor championships, and recognizing those athletes who were most instrumental in team scoring. This is an understandable focus of the book, as any college track coach has to be concerned with winning and losing. The roster of those athletes is pretty impressive: Grant Holloway (no relation, and a certain future Hall-of-Famer), Christian Taylor (another certain HOFer), Will Claye, Rickey Harris, Kerron Clement, Tony McQuay, Jeff Demps, to name a few. Mouse became head of the women’s program too after the death of Tom Jones. Parker Valby, Grace Stark, Jasmine Moore, Anna Hall, Talitha Diggs and Cory McGee are a few of the outstanding athletes developed in that program.

National titles did not come easy in those early years. Track powers from Arkansas, Texas A&M and LSU provided enormous roadblocks every year until ’12 and ’13 when Florida men won back-to-back outdoor titles (co-champs in ’13). The Gator men’s programs have gone on to win a total of 7 NCAA outdoor championships since ’12, certainly the most impressive collegiate coaching record in the last decade or so.

Unfortunately, Mouse’s account does not shed much light on why Florida’s men’s teams have done so well. Great recruiting, good assistant coaches, yes, but I had hoped for more about the “secret” of his success and why Holloway must be such a good coach. All I gleaned from the book is that he must be a charismatic, determined leader who is also a good listener — to his athletes and to fellow coaches. Still I don’t really get from the book what sets the Florida program apart from others.

So who is Mouse Holloway and how did he get to where he is today? He grew up in a rough part of Columbus, Ohio: “I was surrounded by… negativity every day. It was like I was in the movie Groundhog Day; I woke up each day knowing there would be some sort of drama.”

With a father not always in the picture, his mother was the family linchpin. He…