By Gail Wood
He was the eighth player picked in the 1984 NFL draft.
He was a consensus first-team All-American his senior year at the University of Washington.
And he played defensive tackle for the Denver Broncos in the 1991 Super Bowl.
But there stood Ron Holmes, his massive arms folded across his chest, coaching the defensive line for Northwest Christian High School, far removed from the spotlight of the NFL. He wasn’t too big or too proud to help a friend.
“It’s time for me to give back to my community,” Holmes told me after a practice in 2008. “And really, truthfully, I benefited by people taking me under their wings playing football.”
And people benefited from knowing Holmes, who died in his DuPont home at age 48 on Oct. 27.
His friends knew him as being funny, quick with a joke. They also remember him as being humble, rarely talking about his days as a teammate with John Elway.
“You’d never had guessed he had experienced the Super Bowl,” Pete Fulton said. “He was so humble.”
Fulton was Holmes’ football coach at Timberline in the early 1980s. Later, Fulton asked Holmes to join him on the coaching staff at Northwest Christian. As a volunteer coach, Holmes brought his experience and his sense of humor.
“When things got too serious around the coaches’ staff meetings, he’d say something or do something to break us all up,” Fulton said. “He had a great sense of humor.”
Holmes, a 1981 graduate from Timberline High School, was was the Pac-10’s lineman of the year, winner of the Morris Trophy in 1984. He was voted the most valuable lineman in Washington’s 28-17 victory over Oklahoma in the 1985 Orange Bowl. He finished his career at UW as the Husky’s all-time leader in quarterback sacks. His football legacy is epic.
But friends will remember the friendly man who was always quick with a smile and a joke.
“Everyone loved him,” Fulton said.
While Holmes, who retired from the NFL in 1992, was quick with a joke, he could also be an intense figure on the football field. Fulton remembers Holmes getting into a player’s face mask, shouting instructions or corrections.
“Ron could be as intense as anybody else,” said Terry Shaw, an assistant coach who worked alongside Holmes. “I think the kids were at first a little scared. Because you’ve got this big, huge mammoth man fired up and excited.”
Eventually, the players got used to the 6-foot-5 coach towering over them, shouting instructions.
“They knew he was there for them,” Shaw said. “He really wanted them to be at their best.”
Holmes wanted to do more than give advice on how to shed a block or make a tackle. He also wanted to give them some insight to dealing with life’s challenges.
“I’m trying to figure out how to push a kid’s buttons and not make him just want to win, but to make him want to compete in life,” Holmes told me after a practice several years ago. “This is about life to me.”
Holmes played eight years in the NFL, his first four seasons with Tampa Bay. He then played for Denver from 1989-92. But he didn’t talk a lot about his NFL career.
“He was always interested in what you were doing and in your life,” Shaw said. “It took me a while to figure that out. He had such a sense of humility. That was a big part of who he was.”
In high school, Holmes played tight end and fullback. At Washington, he switched from linebacker to defensive end after a growth spurt.
Holmes’ passion in high school was basketball, not football. But, with some convincing by his older brother, Paul, Ron Holmes saw that his future was tackling and not dunking.
Fulton wasn’t surprised by Holmes success in football.
“You could see his talent on the basketball court,” Fulton said. “He was coordinated. He had such quick feet. Quick hands.”
Holmes began missing practices and games last season because of failing health. He was diabetic and had heart problems. He didn’t coach at all this year and he was missed by the coaching staff and players.
“The kids loved him,” Fulton said. “Everyone loved him.”
