Young hoops fans know of Jrue Holiday, a star point guard formerly of the Philadelphia 76ers and now with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Not many of them, though, know of his uncle, Dwight Holiday.
Dwight Holiday, who was hired by Mid-Pacific Institute to be its boys basketball coach, was a member of one of the most popular teams in Hawaii history — a University of Hawaii basketball team known as the Fabulous Five.
Holiday was a starting shooting guard on the iconic team in the early 1970s. That team went 47-8 over a two-year period, including 24-3 his senior year, culminating in an NCAA Tournament bid. The previous year the team advanced to the NIT in New York. Sporting aloha-print jerseys and shorts, the team became a hit in the Big Apple.
The other Fab Five members were Bob Nash, a former UH men’s basketball coach and No. 1 pick of the Detroit Pistons; Jerome Freeman; John Penebacker and Al Davis.
Holiday himself was drafted in the ninth round by the Seattle SuperSonics but never played for them.
New MPI athletic director Scott Wagner is enthused by the hire.
“Coach Holiday is a great addition. He brings a lot of experience as a player and as a coach,” Wagner said. “There is a great deal of excitement surrounding our team right now, and we are very excited to welcome Dwight and all of his great experiences as a player and a coach.”
Wagner said Holiday has been away from coaching for some time but is now ready to resume coaching basketball. Holiday has coached multiple ILH teams in basketball and tennis. He has not been a head coach at the high school level, but has coached in “NBA-type clinics,” Wagner said.
Holiday replaces Jason Hopkins, who stepped down earlier this year.
When somebody said “MPI hired a member of the Fab Five” I thought they meant Ray Jackson or Jimmy King landed the job.