Darwin Holt, Tide Player Behind Controversial Georgia Tech Hit, Dies

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Former University of Alabama linebacker Darwin Holt, a tenacious undersized player responsible for a controversial hit that temporarily stalled a rivalry with Georgia Tech, died Wednesday.

Click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter and breaking news alerts.

The news was confirmed by several of Holt's friends and arrangements for a memorial service and funeral have not been announced as of the publication of this article.

Originally from Gainesville, Texas, Holt initially played for Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant at Texas A&M before following his coach to Tuscaloosa in 1959 after a brief stint in junior college.

Frank Vines, a longtime friend of Holt's, told Patch that the linebacker came from an athletic family, with his older brother Jack playing running back for the legendary Bud Wilkinson at Oklahoma.

But for Holt, his football idol would always be Bear Bryant.

"He told me once that Texas A&M was recruiting a guy on his team in high school and Gene Stallings came to recruit him," Vines recalled. "He went back to Coach Bryant and said I'm not sure about the other guy, but this Darwin kid is impressive."

Apart from his worship of Bryant, Holt would also later say in a 2018 interview with AL.com that he left College Station because “there were no girls there.”

Longtime Crimson Tide football fixture Gary White told Patch that Holt stood out because of his toughness.

"When he stepped on the field, he was all out, dedicated, disciplined and, pound-for-pound, he put everything he had into it," White said. "He was not one of the bigger players, but he was as tough as Lee Roy Jordan. Darwin realized the discipline he would have to have and commitment and he saw in Coach Bryant the things that he wanted to accomplish himself and followed Coach Bryant here."

Injuries limited Holt for the 1959 and 1960 seasons, but the 1961 campaign would be one for the ages that saw the Crimson Tide and the 5’7”, 167-pound linebacker thrust into the national spotlight.

In what would go on to be a perfect season capped with the first national title of the Bear Bryant Era, it would be No. 2 Alabama's game against the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets in Atlanta on Nov. 18, 1961, which is still talked about to this day.

Due to the lack of sophisticated video and photo technology, the incident remains something of an unsolved mystery.

Regardless, newspapers across the country printed a diagram constructed out of a still frame shot that showed the hit — a special teams blow that saw Holt put an elbow and forearm into the face of Georgia Tech's ALL-SEC running back Chick Graning.

Graning, a beloved figure on the Georgia Tech campus, was seriously injured by the hit. Multiple reports from the day said he was knocked unconscious, broke multiple bones in his face, and saw five of his upper front teeth knocked out.

The incident ignited a fervor among the sporting press, particularly in Atlanta, which happened to coincide with an unrelated scandal that eventually saw Bryant cleared of accusations of gathering sensitive play-calling information from University of Georgia Athletic Director Wally Butts.

Sports Illustrated reported that roughly 53,000 fans were in attendance that November day in Atlanta and a year after the incident mentioned the lingering anger over the hit.

"The injury to Graning, an extremely popular boy who has been described as 'basically too gentle to be a truly great football player,' infuriated Georgia Tech fans, faculty and alumni, who argued that it was the result of a deliberate and brutal foul. More significantly, it was called characteristic of Alabama football — and just about the last straw."

Bad blood between the two programs would fester in the following years and the rivalry was eventually put on hold after the 1964 season. The two schools did not meet again on a football field until the 1979 season.

Vines said Holt once showed him the actual film of the hit — a true piece of college football history — and gave his own account of what happened and why.

"He had a film of it and asked if I wanted to see it," Vines recalled. "He said the kick went off the side of the Georgia Tech punter's foot. It wasn't particularly deep and [Alabama] players weren't allowed to watch the football. They were instructed to go down and focus on blocking assignments and he just hit his man. [Graning] was watching the football and not prepared."

Graning went on to play professional football for the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Patriots, along with a stint in Canada, before embarking on a coaching career.

Gary White was on the sidelines for that game but did not see the actual hit. Instead, his first image was an unconscious Graning on the field.

"Darwin did not like talking about it publicly," White recalled, before speaking about how Bryant stood by his linebacker throughout the ensuing onslaught of negative press coverage. "First of all Coach Bryant was a players' coach. He backed his players to the nth degree and backed Darwin to the nth degree."

Following the incident, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Holt claimed that he hadn't realized the safety man had called for a fair catch, going on to explain that he had attempted to block Graning out of the play, and that the injury to Graning "definitely wasn't intentional."

But, despite fanning the flames of a rivalry that would continue for years to come, the controversy eventually blew over as the Tide, led by legendary quarterback Pat Trammell and linebacker Lee Roy Jordan, finished the season as the undefeated national champions.

"The thing about the 1961 team, the first time as freshmen when they met with Coach Bryant at Friedman Hall, he told them then they would be national champions before they left the university," Gary White recalled. "Sure enough, four years later they were. They believed exactly what he said and bought into everything he was trying to do."

AL.com's Creg Stepheson reported that following his graduation, Holt played for a brief time in the Canadian Football League and ultimately tried his hand at coaching at New Mexico Military Institute.

Indeed, Stephenson cited a Birmingham News interview with Holt in 2003 where the former linebacker said he always wanted to be a coach, but decided to leave the game for good due to the Georgia Tech controversy.

Still, Holt was beloved by the Crimson Tide faithful for the rest of his life, much of which he spent working in the insurance business and being a husband and father to two daughters in Vestavia Hills.

In his life after football, White said Holt was also instrumental along with some of the other former players in starting the 1st and 10 Club in Birmingham — a service group with a mission of providing guidance for student-athletes to prepare them for life in the working world.

"I saw that as just one of the great things he did," White said. "He was always a leader even after he graduated.

White then reflected on the passage of time and all that’s been lost since those halcyon days.

"We've counted up players, and Darwin is the 29th player we've lost off of that team," White told Patch. "I really hate that because I recall how we were so close and being out at practice and going out on game trips and going to classes and going to movies. And it's just sad to see our group dwindling down."

Still, despite the ups and downs of his legendary and, at times, controversial football career, Holt seemed to have made peace with the past and is likely to live forever in Tide football history and in the hearts of its fans.

“I’ve got no regrets,” Holt told the Over the Mountain Journal in 2014. “I’ve had a great life. I’ve got a lot for which to be thankful.”

Have a news tip or suggestion on how I can improve Tuscaloosa Patch? Maybe you're interested in having your business become one of the latest sponsors for Tuscaloosa Patch? Email all inquiries to me at ryan.phillips@patch.com