The biggest problem when considering the basketball career of Harry Hollines is figuring out when he might have had a scoring slump.
But looking back on his illustrious playing days at Manual High School and the University of Denver, Hollines said he indeed struggled for a brief time in his sophomore year at Manual.
“I always could shoot the ball, but for about two weeks, I couldn’t put the ball in the basket,” Hollines said. “It was a two- game slump, and I had gotten down because I felt I was letting the team down.”
Hollines credited coach Al Oviatt with getting him through the slump.
“He told me the more I worried about it, the worse it would get,” Hollines said. “He eased my mind and it relaxed me. My shots started to fall again.”
Hollines sandwiched an amazing scoring run around those two weeks. Before leaving Manual, he set eight career scoring records in the Denver Prep League. He surpassed records that had been set by Manual’s Dennis Boone, Denver South’s Joe Wheeler and Denver North’s Gerry Grover. About the only record he missed was the single-game high at the time of 49 points by Lincoln’s Mike Rebich.
In the 1964 season, Hollines set a single-season record of 353 points in league play, established a two-season record of 582 points in league play and a three-season record of 586 points in league play.
Hollines also set DPL records of 468 points in all games in a season, 801 in all games in two seasons and 807 points in all games for three seasons.
After being selected to several high school all-star teams, Hollines earned an Ellison Ketchum Memorial Scholarship to attend DU.
“High school was a fun time for me,” Hollines said. “I thought Al Oviatt was a good coach who never got the credit he deserved. When you have a lot of talented players, it’s sometimes hard to get them to play together.”
The change from the Auditorium Arena to the DU Fieldhouse didn’t affect his shooting touch.
Hollines played for the Pioneers from 1965-68. At 6-feet-2, he played outside and was known for his long-range shooting, although long before the 3-point line was part of college basketball. On Jan. 21, 1967, Hollines scored 41 points against Air Force. He went on to average 25.1 points for his career, scoring 1,879 points. Both marks still rank No. 1 in the DU record book. His scoring average of 25.3 in the 1965-66 season ties the single-season record for DU with Matt Teahan (1978-79).
“Some people would ask me if I regretted going to DU because I had a chance to go other places,” Hollines said. “I told them not one minute did I regret going there. I had so many high points, but one was seeing all parts of the country while playing for DU. I saw most of the United States. I hadn’t been on an airplane until my senior year in high school.”
After his collegiate career, Hollines was selected by Phoenix in the NBA draft and by the Denver Rockets in the ABA draft. He signed with Phoenix, but his pro career never blossomed.
Hollines became a recreation director for 34 years in the Denver Parks and Recreation Department, primarily at the Skyland Center.
“I got to coach the kids,” Hollines said. “We had seven football teams and seven basketball teams and a world-class track and field team called the Colorado Flyers. Our No. 1 focus was education. My parents always said the education was first and basketball was second.”
But in the case of many of the youngsters at the center, Hollines had to make sports lead to an education.
“A good thing was to get them interested in sports,” Hollines said. “We knew if they were interested in sports, they would do enough to keep their grades up and stay eligible to play. They also stayed out of trouble.”
Hollines, 61, is retired.
“I still can shoot the basketball, but I can’t jump,” Hollines said.
He also remembered a defining day while at Mitchell Elementary School.
One of his teachers was Ed Calloway Sr., who later coached basketball at Manual.
“I was running with a pretty bad crowd,” Hollines said. “I would say that Ed Calloway gave me a big nudge in the right direction. He threw me against the wall and said he didn’t want to see me with that crowd again. My parents would have taken care of the problem, but I got the message from Ed. He’d probably be fired in today’s society, but it worked.”
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
