Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
George Holmes dies at age 65
He was Coatesville’s greatest track athlete
COATESVILLE >> George T. Holmes Jr., Coatesville’s greatest track and field athlete who nearly missed competing in the 1976 Olympics, has died at the age of 65.
“George was the best track athlete I ever coached,” said Ross Kershey, former coach and teacher at Coatesville High School known by many as the Silver Fox. “He won three state championships — the 100, 220 and high hurdles — at the Golden Wet Invitational in Sacramento, which is the last track meet I ever coached in Coatesville. He came in second in the nation, and the guy who beat him ended up in the 1976 Olympics.”
The Golden West Invitational (GWI) high school track and field allstar meet brings together top high school athletes from throughout the country and provides them with the very highest levels of competition.
He became a track star at the young age of 5. By the end of his junior year of high school, he set a national record in the 120 high hurdles. The following year he placed third in the high hurdles at the national Junior Olympics Championship. He continued to set records and win races for the Coatesville High school team, District 1, State Championships, and Penn Relays, where he was named MVP. He was a member of the Championship of America Mile Relay Team.
Holmes was named Track and Field High School All-American. He received a scholarship to Essex County College and was named Junior College All-American six times. He has been ranked among the top 10 in the world in the 110-meter hurdles, the 160-meter dash, and the 200-meter dash.
In 1984, he participated in the Olympic trials in Los Angeles.
“Coatesville is lucky if they have a state champion in one event and George won three in his senior year in 1974. He won three ChesMont championships, three District championships. He could have been in five or six and won all of them. Believe me, he was the best ever. There has never been anyone like him.”
Holmes was inducted in the Coatesville Area High School Sports Hall of fame in 2001. He was later an inductee into the Pennsylvania High School Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2008.
At Coatesville, Holmes went undefeated in dual meets for three years, and most of the races weren’t even close. He won seven gold medals at the ChestMont championships, seven gold medals at district events, and eight gold medals at state meets. To this day, he is the only Coatesville athlete to win three events at one state meet.
In his senior year at Coatesville, Holmes ran the 100-yard dash in 9.7 seconds, the 220-yard dash as 21.7 seconds and the hurdles at 13.7, all records that stand today.
Behind Holmes and teammates Dave Lapp, Linwood Alston, Ron Hunt, Ely James and Doug Lewis, the Red Raiders boys’ track and field team, coached by Kershey, won the 1974 Class A state championship, capturing five gold medals at the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association meet at Penn State University.
In 1981, he moved from Coatesville, to Atlanta with his wife, Sheila and they joined the Cathedral of Faith COGIC. Community service became his ministry. He served as the van driver for the seniors, a trained Scout leader, COF Usher Board member, food pantry facilitator, and an ordained deacon. But he was best known as the “vestibule minister.”
Holmes was employed with the former Lukens Steel Co. in Coatesville, Shallowford Community Hospital, Kroger Groceries, and eventually started his own cleaning business.
But volunteering and helping others was his passion. The TV show Good Morning America featured him in a segment on the importance of father-daughter relationships. He served as a Little League coach for over 10 years. Despite his many awards and accolades, Holmes told those closest to him that his greatest accomplishment was his loving family.
Holmes is survived by his beloved wife, Sheila BaxterHolmes and his two children, Shenae and George T. Holmes III, and his mother, Edith Blake Holmes. He was preceded in death by his father, George Thomas Holmes Sr. George is also survived by three brothers, Sgt. Regional Holmes (Iris), Waverly Holmes (Jackie), and Alfred Holmes, and two sisters, Cassandra and Roxanne Holmes.