Johnny Holliday, the legendary play-by-play voice of the Maryland football and men’s basketball teams, dishes on his favorite guilty food, road campus and more.
PressBox: What’s a bucket-list place you’ve never been to?
Johnny Holliday: Here in the States, I’ve never been out to Montana and Wyoming. I think there’s a lot to see in this country that I’ve never seen.
PB: What’s your favorite guilty food?
JH: Milkshakes
PB: What was your favorite sports team growing up?
JH: Yankees
PB: What’s your favorite campus to visit?
JH: Let’s go back through the ACC. It’d have to be Miami, which is my home. So I always like going back there because all my buddies would want to come to the game and all my buddies want to get together for dinner. We’d always stay at the nicest hotels down there in South Miami.
PB: Other than Maryland Stadium, what’s your favorite football stadium to call a game?
JH: It’d be between probably Georgia Tech, Carolina and … maybe Penn State.
PB: Other than Xfinity Center, what’s your favorite basketball arena to call a game?
JH: I would go Cole Field House No. 1 and then I’d probably put Carolina and Clemson right there behind. Also, how about Cameron Indoor Stadium? We’re up above. We’re looking right down on center court and you’ve got a great view of the game, the fans.
PB: What’s your favorite game you’ve ever called?
JH: It’s got to be the national championship [in 2002].
PB: What book are you reading right now?
JH: I’m reading a book right now called “A Mommy, a Daddy, Two Sisters, and a Jimmy: Autism and the Difference It Makes,” by Dr. Richard Bucher. His son has autism, and I happen to be friends with his son. He brought his son to all the Maryland games, and every time he’d come to a basketball game he would always call me to come over to visit with his son. So I would do that. There’s a picture of him and me in this book.
PB: What’s your favorite movie ever?
JH: It’s only because a high school classmate of mine was in the movie: “The Breakfast Club.” Mr. Vernon — Paul Gleason — [was my classmate]. Gleason and I went to North Miami High School together.
PB: What’s your favorite summer vacation spot?
JH: Deep Creek Lake
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics