Bob Holec always liked playing catcher in baseball.
From his early days in little leagues and the Flint Olympian and CANUSA Games, through high school at Flint Central, on to college at Colorado State and into his years in the Flint City Baseball League, Holec was usually behind the plate.
“I liked it,” he said. “You’re in the game on every pitch. I liked figuring out what pitch to throw next. You’re involved in everything.
“And I liked getting dirty.”
Those traits of leadership and hands-on involvement would serve him well later in life, when he took on the job of preserving baseball in Flint as commissioner of IMA baseball and later the Greater Flint Area Baseball Softball Association.
His induction into the Greater Flint Area Sports Hall of Fame this year may be based partly on his athletic career, but it’s his work as a savior of baseball in his hometown that put him over the top.
“Bob Holec is the driving force keeping baseball and softball viable in the greater Flint area,” said Dennis Lazar in his nomination of Holec for GFASHOF consideration.
Holec was a three-sport athlete at Central, where he was an All-Saginaw Valley Conference end and linebacker in football, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound forward in basketball and an honorable mention All-Valley catcher in baseball.
One of his football teammates was lineman Joe Eufinger, who would later coach the Indians for 26 years. Eufinger vaguely remembers Holec coming in as a backup quarterback as a sophomore on the varsity.
“He says he saved our homecoming game,” Eufinger said. “There may be a bit of truth in that. I think he might have gone the wrong way on a play and managed to fool everybody and score.”
Kidding aside, Holec was good enough to land a full-ride football scholarship to Colorado State, where he also played four years of baseball.
Upon graduation, he returned to Flint to coach both those sports at Central for 38 years, serving as Eufinger’s defensive coordinator for 23 years.
“He was an extremely enthusiastic coach,” Eufinger said. “Always intense, a fun guy and an outstanding defensive coordinator.
The kids loved him.
