Bob Holt, the long-time Arkansas sportswriter who had covered the Razorbacks since 1981, died Wednesday night. He was 65.
His death comes four days after he collapsed while walking back to the Faurot Field press box following postgame interviews Saturday at the University of Missouri, his alma mater.
During his illustrious 43-year career, Holt was named the Arkansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association four times — in 2000, 2015, 2019 and 2021 — and was inducted into the Arkansas Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 2022.
This tribute could go into great detail on Holt’s skills as a journalist. A product of Missouri’s prestigious journalism program, he was known for his quirky way of asking questions.
Armed with a big smile and genuine curiosity, Holt always got the answer he was looking for – even if it meant asking one or two or six follow-ups. His unconventional approach certainly helped with asking the “tough” questions, as he usually eventually elicited responses from even the most tight-lipped of subjects.
He also never hesitated to ask a question — no matter how small or odd the topic — to fit a particular tidbit he was writing in a notebook.
Holt was always thinking ahead. At his final press conference, following Arkansas’ loss at Missouri, he was gathering quotes for potential stories to write during the dead period between the end of the regular season and the bowl game. He never had a shortage of questions.
Coaches and players universally loved and respected Holt. They’d crack jokes with him and he was quick to fire back. AL.com’s Michael Casagrande described Holt perfectly in his beautiful tribute:
“A reporter who could make even Nick Saban smile became his own reluctant institution — a humble, self-deprecating antithesis of all that people hate about our profession.”
He starred at press conferences in Fayetteville and on the weekly SEC coaches teleconference during football season, but his super bowl was the annual SEC Media Days each summer.
Attending the event every year since Arkansas joined the conference, Holt had a commanding presence in the giant ballroom filled with reporters from across the region. Coaches took notice.
Look no further than the 2015 event, when then-Auburn coach Gus Malzahn opened the floor to questions — specifically from the legend himself.
“Personally, I’d like to give Bob Holt an opportunity to be the first,” said Malzahn, who was entering his third season as the Tigers’ head coach but had known Holt since his time as a high school coach in Arkansas. “I think he’s earned that over the years.” In typical unassuming manner, Holt never assumed anything from the coaches he’d interviewed over the course of so many seasons:
That extended to basketball, as seen with this exchange between Holt and Ole Miss coach Chris Beard last October:
Players also grew to love him, as well:
Remembering Bob Holt
On a much more personal level, Bob was a great friend. The best friend you could ever ask for, honestly. And I was blessed to have been able to call him a friend for more than 10 years.
My earliest memory of Bob was near the beginning of the 2012 Arkansas football season.
A young, timid freshman at the University of Arkansas, my first assignment for The Traveler was covering the weekly Monday press conference with head coach John L. Smith.
I was always taught to show up early and thank goodness I did. Smith showed up several minutes before his scheduled time and was ready to go, but Bob told him he needed to wait on the arrival of Nate Allen, another local sportswriting legend. Bob pulled out his flip phone and called him, at which point Smith took the phone and told Nate, “Dollar waiting on a dime!”
That was the first press conference I ever covered, but it wasn’t until about a year and a half later that I truly got to know Bob.
I’ll never forget sitting inside the Baum-Walker Stadium press box when I first started working for WholeHogSports, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s website dedicated to the Razorbacks. Bob took it upon himself to introduce me — still just a sophomore in college — to all the other sportswriters, erasing my natural awkwardness and accepting me into a beat that I now consider family.
I wasn’t special, though. I came to learn that Bob was like that with every young, aspiring journalist. Whether they worked for the same company or not, he was always willing to give advice or even offer a ride to road games. He shared stories of the older journalists who helped him while at Missouri, so he paid it forward. I benefited from that several times over the years.
On one trip home from an Arkansas-Missouri basketball game in Columbia, Mo., I was in the passenger seat when Bob was pulled over for speeding. He didn’t usually have a lead foot, but he was driving a rental car he wasn’t used to and truly didn’t realize how fast he was going. Not that it mattered to the state trooper; he still got a ticket.
Most people would be upset, but Holt immediately shrugged it off as his mistake and would laugh about it any time we brought it up. That’s the kind of guy he was — always with a smile on his face.
Bob relished time with others. He’d frequently work at restaurants with free WiFi, like Panera and Chick-fil-A. He knew the latter of those was my preferred spot and always offered to buy me a sweet tea — my favorite — if I joined him. Of course, it was the former where we stopped when news of Mike Anderson’s firing broke while on our way to cover an Arkansas-Missouri State baseball game in Springfield, Mo.
None of that changed as I hopped from WholeHogSports to 247Sports to Rivals to Best of Arkansas Sports. Bob was always willing to share his institutional knowledge of the Razorbacks or swap stats and notes for stories we were working on.
He knew my love for numbers and, I’m convinced, sometimes just wanted to impress me. That was true even Saturday, when we were waiting for player interviews and he pointed out Arkansas’ turnover margin and the resulting points in each of its six losses.
In 2016, Bob attended my wedding. It was the same day as Arkansas football’s media day for local media and he spent the afternoon asking countless questions to coaches and players, but managed to hit an early deadline so he could be there on my big day.
His gift was a set of plates that my wife and I still use – and joke about because they’re green, just like his beloved Green Bay Packers. He also loved the Detroit Tigers and even named his cats after two of his favorite players: (Lou) Whitaker and (Bill) Freehan.
Just this year, Bob joined me in celebrating the 21st birthday of another young student journalist, BoAS contributor Daniel Shi.
In sportswriting, using cliches is typically frowned upon. But with Bob, he really was the kind of guy who’d give you the shirt off his back. Then he’d ask you five or six questions about it.
There will never be another Bob, but I hope I can carry on his legacy by being as kind and helpful to young writers – like Daniel – as Bob was to me a decade ago.
I already miss my friend.
Other Tributes to an Arkansas Icon
To get a sense for Bob Holt’s impact, just take a look across social media:
and on and on…
