Joe Holliday is a native of Jamesville and graduated from the college in 1942. He captained the tennis team for two years and won three letters in the sport. He won the Tennis Cup, symbolic of being the campus single champion, in his senior year. He also lettered in basketball for two years. He was president of his graduating class and of the Student Government Association. Also he was selected for Who’s Who, the Golden Knot Honor Society, student supervisor of the dining hall, and as the recipient of the Faculty Cup at his graduation.
Holliday went on to do further study at Wake Forest and at UNC-CH, where he earned a master’s degree in 1952. He returned to Jamesville High in 1943 and while there coached boys and girls basketball teams to county championships. He served as a coach at Raleigh’s Broughton High from 1945 through 1950. He was Track Coach from 1946 through 1949, boy’s junior varsity basketball coach for 1945-46, and boy’s varsity basketball coach from 1946 through 1950. He compiled a 56-23 record in the latter position, including a 27-game win streak extended over the 1948-49 and 1949-50 seasons.
Holliday coached the East to victory in the Second Annual N.C. High School Coaches Association All-Star game in 1950. Eight players coached by him at Broughton went on to play in the Atlantic Coast and Carolinas Conferences. From 1952 until 1968 he served as Principal at Broughton and in 1968 the school’s gymnasium was named in his honor. He was Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education for the Raleigh City Schools from 1968 until 1976. He served the Wake County Public Schools as Area Director from 1976 until his retirement in 1981.
Holliday has served the college as Vice President and President of the Alumni Association, as an Alumni representative to the Board of Trustees, and as a member of the Alumni Council. In 1984 he was presented the Atlantic Christian College Alumni Achievement Award. Also he has served on the Board of Trustees of Wake Technical College, on the State Textbook Commission, as President of the Raleigh Swim Association, and was national runner-up for Secondary School Principal of-the-Year in 1963.he has been a Deacon and Elder at Hillyer Memorial Christian Church in Raleigh.
Holliday has survived his deceased wife, Jane, and has two daughters, Jane Houchin and Amanda Spencer, both of whom have excelled in aquatic sports.
