holt,
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Upon reaching the Capstone, Holt quickly learned that the Bryant who coached at Alabama wasn’t much different than the Bryant who had developed a hard-nosed reputation at Texas A&M. “When I was at A&M, we always heard the Junction Boys (members of Bryant’s first team at Texas A&M) talk about how tough it was,” Holt recalled, chuckling. “Well, Coach Bryant may have changed locales, but he didn’t change his techniques when he got to Alabama. That first year, so many guys left that I had three different roommates.” Nobody could argue with Bryant’s results. The Crimson Tide, which had won only four games in the three years before Bryant arrived, went 5-4-1 in his first season. Alabama was picked to be even better in 1959. Holt was expected to a big part of the success, but a knee injury forced him to miss the season. “I had to wear a large knee cast for weeks,” Holt said. “But I went to all the games. I got to fly on the school plane with Dr. (Frank) Rose (the University president) to the away games.” Despite the loss of Holt, Alabama posted a 7-1-2 record before losing to Penn State in the Liberty Bowl. By 1960, the Crimson Tide had reentered the national discussion as one of the finest programs in college football. And Holt was ready to be a part of it—although he was still hardly a giant
karr,
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when contacted last week. “I still really enjoy playing. I know it’s a cliché, but baseball has been very good to me. I’ve gotten to see so much of America and played in Mexico and Canada. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.” Karr’s career in the minor leagues has seen him wear the uniforms of teams such as the Pensacola Pelicans, the El Paso Diablos and the Sioux City Explorers, finally arriving at Grand Prairie. In 10 years, he has earned a career batting average of .283. This season Karr got off to one of his best starts, with his average rocketing to .370 before settling down to .290. “That’s the way baseball is,” Karr said. “Sometimes you’re hitting everything in front of you, and then you get in a slump nobody can explain. You just have to work through it.” Life in the minor leagues can be nomadic. In 2013, Karr played for three teams in one season. And the method of travel for road games–both near and far–is the bus. “Actually those bus rides aren’t quite like people think they are,” Karr said. “Our bus with Grand Prairie is an 18-wheeler with 28 beds and satellite TV, so it’s really not a bad way to travel.” The longest bus ride Karr remembers is a 26-hour marathon to Winnipeg in Canada. “Believe or not, it was a lot of
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at 5’7” and 167 pounds. “Coach Bryant always said he didn’t care how big I was,” Holt said. “He cared about quickness and toughness, and that was the kind of football I loved to play.” The practices were as tough as ever, but Holt remembers some fun times as well. “The old practice field was behind a large girls’ dorm, and if you were facing the dorm you could–let’s just say get a good view of the girls,” Holt said, laughing. “We rotated which day our coaches faced the dorm and which day the players did. Coach (Pat) James, our position coach, always wanted to face the dorm, but we’d have to tell him when it wasn’t his turn.” Holt quickly moved into a starting post at linebacker in the single platoon system. He became the signal-caller for the defense, calling the formations for nearly every play, on the way to becoming–quite literally–a coach on the field. “I spent hours studying the opponents and their tendencies,” Holt said. “I had to know their offenses as well as their quarterback did. I don’t see how anyone can think football players are dumb, because there is a lot to learn in order to be successful.” The season’s highlight may have come in Atlanta on Nov. 12, when a 5-1-1 Alabama team rolled into Grant Field to play old rival Georgia Tech. The first half belonged to the hosts as the Yellow Jackets roared to a 15-0 halftime lead. “I’ll never forget it,” Holt said.
“We all thought Coach Bryant would come in the dressing room and start throwing things. Instead, he clapped his hands and said ‘Okay, we have them right where we want them.’ Some of us wondered what game he was watching.” Bryant turned out to be right. Thanks to some adjustments Holt called for the defense, Georgia Tech was held scoreless in the second half, and Alabama staged a brilliant rally to win 16-15 on a last-second field goal. The Crimson Tide went on to finish the season with an 8-1-2 mark. As Alabama prepared for what looked to be a championship-type season in 1961, Holt suffered another knee injury during spring practice. As a result, he never practiced in pads for the rest of his career at Alabama. Holt and the Tide rolled through 1961 with a perfect slate, giving up only three touchdowns the entire season. Decades later, a national news organization would rank the 1961 Alabama defense as the greatest in college football history. Holt continued to call defensive signals, just as quarterback Trammell called the offense. “People tried to say our success on defense was due to teamwork, but it was really the opposite,” Holt said. “Our defense was more about individualism. Everybody wanted to be the one who made the tackle.” Some of the rival offenses that Holt prepared for had the look of the 21st century. “We had to prepare for every situation,” he said. “Everybody thinks the
fun,” he said. “It was a great way for the players to get to know each other. When you spend 26 hours on a bus with a bunch of guys, you’re going to know them pretty well.” Needless to say, the camaraderie developed on those long bus rides sometimes leads to hilarious locker room pranks. “When you get that many guys together, what else can you expect?” he said, laughing. “It’s everything you can imagine. I could tell you some crazy stuff, but they are all good guys and all the pranks are in good fun.” As one of the oldest players on the Grand Prairie roster, Karr takes his leadership responsibilities seriously.
three rules: “First, you should value other people’s time by being on time. Second, treat every at-bat as if it’s your last one–because it could be. And third, sometimes you have to swing for the fences. “I think those things relate a lot to life as well as baseball.” Karr apparently follows his own advice, particularly in the postseason. As something of a minor league version of former Oakland A’s and New York Yankees great Reggie Jackson, Karr seems to be at his best when his team is in the playoffs. One year, Karr hit .400 in the postseason. “I don’t really know why, but for some reason I always get a lot of big hits and play well if we’re in the playoffs,” he said. “Call it experience, maybe?” Karr has had opportunities to leave the game but turned them down. A few years ago Berry College in Georgia, his alma mater, called with a job offer. “They offered me a full-time position as a hitting coach,” he said. “It was tempting, but I said no. I just wasn’t ready to stop playing.” But after 10 years in the minor leagues and three surgeries, Karr knows his ride is nearing its end. And as always, he will put the needs of his wife, Jaime, and six-month-old daughter, Charlotte, first. “I know this can’t go on forever, but I just want to play the best I can for as long as I can,” Karr said. “After that, we’ll see.” In the meantime, Palmer Karr is still living his dream.
‘I’m living the dream. I still really enjoy playing. I know it’s a cliché, but baseball has been very good to me. I’ve gotten to see so much of America and played in Mexico and Canada. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.’ Palmer Karr “Being older means setting an example for the young fellows,” he said. “I have to remember that they are paying attention to anything I do or say. I’ve always tried to live by
spread offense is something new, but Auburn ran the spread against us in 1961, so there’s really nothing new out there.” Holt and his teammates had no trouble stopping the Tigers’ spread as Alabama romped to a 34-0 victory. The win over the Tigers also saw a memorable play, when Holt picked off an Auburn pass. “It was the last play of the first half, and I intercepted the ball,” he said, smiling. “I was running toward the goal as the horn went off ending the half. Coach Bryant and everyone started walking toward the dressing room while I was still running. I gained about 30 yards before an Auburn player finally tackled me. It was like Coach Bryant thought I wasn’t fast enough to score.” While Alabama’s 1961 season was golden, there was a downside for Holt in the ninth game. He was the target of vicious and unfair accusations of dirty play in a particularly hard-fought 10-0 win over Georgia Tech at Legion Field. Atlanta sportswriters with their own agenda fueled the controversy, but Bryant, the University–and the entire state of Alabama–stood firmly behind Holt. “Coach Bryant believed in tough, hard-hitting football but wouldn’t put up with a guy who played dirty for two seconds,” Holt said. “I wasn’t the kind of player who got penalties.” The brouhaha faded into the background weeks later, when Alabama was named national champion by both the Associated Press and United Press
International. Holt, an outstanding student who graduated in less than four years, played for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League and had a brief stint in coaching before entering private business. But he never stopped bleeding crimson and white. Holt still holds with great pride a newspaper clipping from early in the 1962 season where Bryant is asked to assess his team, which was led by All-American linebacker Lee Roy Jordan and quarterback Joe Namath. “We still don’t have a Darwin Holt,” Bryant is quoted as saying. Holt has shown his love for his university in more tangible ways. He founded the First and Ten Club, an organization that helps newlygraduated former Alabama players start careers. “I went to see Coach Bryant about the idea I had about starting the club,” he said. “He said that a lot of people come to him with great ideas and that I should just go and do it and then come back and tell him about it. That’s exactly what I did.” Now retired, Holt lives quietly with his wife and beams with pride about his two adult daughters, who are the lights of his life. He still keeps up with his former Crimson Tide teammates on a regular basis and loves to talk about those great days nearly six decades ago. “It’s been a great life,” Holt said. “I’ve been blessed in so many ways.” And getting to know Darwin Holt is a blessing, too.
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