Holman Is Ironman Behind the Microphone

“Hello once again everyone. Good evening from Atlanta.”

With that, Steve Holman begins another night behind the mike for the Atlanta Hawks, extending a streak of verbal continuity that has lasted through good times and plenty of bad ones, through the death of his mother, the raising of a family and the occasional illness, through more than 1,400 games of uninterrupted allegiance to his team and those listening at home or in their cars.

“He’s the iron man of broadcasting,” said Bernie Mullin, president and CEO of the Hawks.

The Cal Ripken-like streak began on March 1, 1989, with Holman taking over the play-by-play duties when John Sterling left for a job with the New York Yankees. It will reach 1,417 games in a row this weekend -- and that doesn’t include the preseason games he does every year.

“My dad used to tell me, ‘When you go to work, you’re paid to go to work every day,’ ” said Holman, a 52-year-old native of Lawrence, Mass. “It was a blue-collar town, a mill town. They are hardworking people. They all have the work-ethic thing. So, yeah, I’m proud to have the streak. I’ve worked hard to keep it.”

Holman grew up listening to Johnny Most, the longtime radio voice of the Boston Celtics. At 17, he was bold enough to introduce himself to his favorite announcer, soon taking over as his assistant -- keeping score, taking notes and learning the profession within earshot of his idol during the glory years of John Havlicek, Dave Cowens, Jo Jo White and Paul Westphal.

Then, during a game in 1975, Most suddenly lost his voice and turned over the microphone to his protege. “Steve, do the rest of the game,” he said.

“I was really nervous -- but not until after it was over,” Holman recalled. “I felt like I had been ready to do that my whole life.”

It was a temporary assignment, of course. Most was one of the best-loved radio announcers in NBA history, his voice still remembered for the classic call “Havlicek stole the ball!” during a 1960s playoff game.

Holman moved on to Atlanta in 1980, working on broadcasts for the NFL Falcons and the long-forgotten Chiefs of the NASL soccer league. Five years later, he hooked up with the Hawks, serving as the analyst and occasional play-by-play man. Finally, he got the chance to call games on a regular basis.

He hasn’t stopped talking since.

“That’s the refreshing part about it,” said former Georgia Tech and NBA player Dennis Scott, who joined Holman this season as the first full-time analyst in team history. “This is someone who has gone to work every day for 1,400 games in a row. And it’s not like this is a Monday-to-Friday job. This is every day of the week.”

Holman’s streak has survived a few close health calls. He’s been struck by laryngitis, but managed to make it through games sipping on hot tea and lemons. He’s come down with the flu, though never bad enough to put him in bed. Most seriously, he had an asthma attack while on a road trip to New York, relying on team doctors to keep him going.

“I thought I was having a heart attack or something,” Holman recalled. “They gave me a shot of adrenaline and something else for the asthma so I could do the game the next night. They thought I was crazy to do it. They wanted me to go in the hospital for three days. But I was able to get through it.”

Holman also kept broadcasting through a personal crisis: his mother’s death in January 2005.

Coincidentally, the Hawks were in Boston when Holman got word that she had passed away in an Atlanta nursing home. He made the arrangements by phone, worked the Hawks-Celtics game that night, then flew back to Atlanta to be with his family. Staying true to his late father’s admonition so many years ago, he also donned the headset and mike for a couple of home games.

During an off day, he returned to Massachusetts for his mother’s funeral and burial. The following day, he rejoined the team in time for a morning shootaround in Miami, the streak intact.

Holman’s passion for the job helped him survive an ownership change in 2004. He could have been forced out when the Hawks switched radio stations as part of the move, but Mullin brokered a deal for him to work directly for the team.

“He’s Hawks through and through,” Mullin said. “We like that he’s a click or two left of neutrality. He’s a slight homer, but not a roaring homer. He’s objective. He knows when a player makes a mistake, but he says it the right way without crucifying him.”

Mullin also was impressed that Holman kept on caring even after the team fell on hard times. The Hawks haven’t been to the playoffs since 1999 -- not even close, for that matter. Last year, Atlanta endured the worst season (13-69) in franchise history.

“We figured in what he’s been able to do with a team that’s underperformed for a number of years,” Mullin said. “He kept his enthusiasm. He kept the interest of the listener. He continued to inform and entertain. That’s a balance we like to have.”

Being in Atlanta, an obscure NBA outpost where the Hawks usually play to thousands of empty seats, Holman knows he is unlikely to gain a national following such as Most or the late Chick Hearn, who broadcast a record 3,338 consecutive games for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Holman certainly has no plans to hang up his headset. His only regret is being away from home so much that his wife, Mary Jane, often was left alone to raise their two sons, now in their 20s.

“I missed a lot of their football games, a lot of their basketball games when they were kids,” he said.

But Holman’s family learned to cope with the lifestyle. He jokes that being at home all the time now would “ruin a perfectly good marriage.” He will keep on broadcasting as long as they let him, doling out an “Oh, my!” here and a “What a play!” there.

“I don’t ever want to retire,” he said. “What else am I going to do if I’m not doing this?”