Hollar brothers pitched for UVA and in VBL and RCBL, then excelled off the diamond

One June day in 1967, after a standout baseball career at Broadway High, senior and recent graduate Hunter Hollar got in a car with Baltimore Orioles scout Art Ehlers.

A right-handed pitcher who grew up in Singers Glen, Hollar had just been drafted by the Orioles in the 50th round of the 1967 MLB Draft. Baltimore native Ehlers was the first general manager of the Orioles when they moved from St. Louis in time for the 1954 season – about a year later he became a scout for the club and stayed in that role until 1973.

“He came to Harrisonburg and took me to Memorial Stadium in Baltimore for an individual tryout. I met several Major Leaguers and put on an Orioles uniform for the workout, an unforgettable experience. Ehlers was the scout who found Brooks Robinson (in Arkansas), and Ehlers later introduced me to Brooks in the clubhouse,” Hollar wrote of the late Baltimore third baseman, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983.

“I dressed in the clubhouse while the Orioles were getting ready for a game, and I met Harry Breechen, the Orioles pitching coach,” said Hollar, the only baseball player drafted out of Broadway High. “They offered to send me to a rookie league team in Bluefield (no big signing bonus), but I decided to go to the University of Virginia to play instead, hoping I would get another shot” at pro ball.

It never happened.

“To make a long story short, my college career was not good enough for another chance, particularly with one year of academic ineligibility. I did manage some success, with the high point being my third year, when I was a regular starter, and beat Clemson with a one-hitter, and a big win at UNC under the lights, where I threw a five-hit victory and had a key base hit,” noted Hollar, now 76.

Hollar began playing at a young age.

“I grew up in Singers Glen and was on the first Little League team Singers Glen ever had,” he noted. “We were in the West Rockingham Little League and played teams from Mount Clinton, Keezletown, Port Republic, McGaheysville and even Rocky Bar. I was the only guy on our first team that could throw the ball from third base to first, so they made me a third baseman. Then one of the coaches surmised that maybe then, I could pitch. And so, I became a pitcher with some success.”

With the Cavs in 1968, according to baseballreference.com, he was 1-2 with an ERA of 2.97 in four games, with two starts. In 1970, according to the school website, Hollar led the pitching staff in appearances with 12. Turner Ashby grad Doug Erbaugh led Cav pitchers in games pitched in 1981 with 16. Larry Erbaugh, the older brother of Doug and a grad of TA, pitched against Hollar in high school; Broadway won the only time they pitched against each other, in the spring of 1967.

While he never got another shot at pro ball, Hollar’s baseball career did not end after his time in Charlottesville.

“I also pitched my first Valley League game for New Market against Luray after my sophomore year in high school against college players. I also played for Charlottesville in the Valley League and Twin County in the Rockingham County Baseball League,” Hollar noted.

Oh, brother

Hunter Hollar was not only member of his family to pitch at Broadway. Or for the Cavaliers. Or in the Valley League – or even the RCBL for that matter.

Barry Penn Hollar, the other sibling in the family, was not drafted out of Broadway High like this brother. But the right-hander also had success on the mound for the Cavaliers.

“I played at Broadway on the varsity for four years, from 1968-1971,” Barry Penn Hollar wrote. “In the summer of 1969 I pitched for Linville Patriots in the County League. In the summer of 1970, I played on the Harrisonburg American Legion team, then with the New Market Rebels in summer of 1971” in the Valley League.

One of his catchers in American Legion was Sam Hess, a graduate of Turner Ashby who played in the minors for the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies in the early 1970s.

“He insisted I never shake him off.  I struck out 18 in nine innings against Spotsylvania, I think. I remember when he wanted a ball on the low outside corner, he literally sat down with the corner in the middle of his body. I loved that,” the Broadway grad noted.

Another player on that Legion team was TA product Alan Knicely, who played in the Majors from 1979-1986 for several teams. “He was a freshman in high school, I think ,and hit what I think was the hardest hit ball I ever saw: a line drive home run that must have gone over 400 feet and never got more than 30 feet off the ground, I’m sure,” Hollar added.

Barry Penn Hollar also played football at Broadway and was on the team that went 10-0 in 1968. The quarterback of that team, Welby Showalter, passed away earlier this month at his home near Broadway.

The younger Hollar was recruited out of Broadway to play football at Dartmouth. He pitched for Dartmouth in 1972, then transferred to Virginia.

“I transferred back to UVA for my second year, which I had to sit out; then pitched for the Cavaliers in 1974 and 1975,” he added. “I had a very good year in 1974, throwing a no-hitter against Mansfield State and a shutout in the ACC Tournament first round against Maryland. By 1975, my arm was shot, and I was not so good. I played every summer for New Market 1971-1974 and one game in 1975 before I went off to North Carolina to do ‘field ed’ to help pay for my first year at Duke Divinity School.”

Success off the field

The brothers both found their niche after graduating from Virginia.

Barry Penn Hollar went to Duke Divinity School, got his doctorate at Virginia and taught religion and philosophy at Shenandoah University in Winchester for 29 years before retiring in 2019.

Now living in Richmond with his wife, Jayne Penn Hollar, he also wrote a paper on the use of a purpose pitch in baseball and gave a presentation at the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016 on the topic. That came after he threw a purpose pitch in college against Tom Brookens, who played in the Valley League and had a long MLB career, in his no-hitter against Mansfield State.

They have three grandchildren and one son, Quentin, who played baseball at Madison County High and has his own architecture photography business in Richmond.

His brother made a career in banking.

“I started in banking in May 1972 with Rockingham National Bank. I started as ‘Auto-Messenger,’ delivering mail around the bank and computer reports to our branches. I then entered a management training program which involved rotating around the bank in different jobs. I landed as Commercial Loan Officer, eventually managing that small department,” Hunter Hollar wrote.

“In the early 1980s, Rockingham National Bank sold to Dominion Bank. In 1983, my family and I moved to Winchester and I became the Regional Executive Officer for Dominion Bank of the Shenandoah Valley in that area. In 1988, I took a job in Richmond as Senior Credit Officer for Dominion Bank of Richmond,” he added. “In late 1990, I was recruited by Sandy Spring Bank in Maryland to become the President and Chief Operating Officer. In 1994, I assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer. I retired at the end of 2008 after 15 years as CEO. I was 60 years old at that time.”

Hunter Hollar has been very involved in the community, including serving on the board for the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Center in Harrisonburg. “I am glad I’ve had the privilege of serving alongside Hunter on the VMRC Board.  He is insightful, encouraging and keeps us focused on our responsibilities and roles. Underpinning all this is his strong Christian faith,” wrote Randy Seitz, a graduate of the former Eastern Mennonite High School and a long-time architect in Harrisonburg.

The athletic career continues for Hunter Hollar, who splits his time between Singers Glen in Rockingham County and Crozet – the latter to be closer to UVA athletic events. “I’ve had season tickets for football, basketball and baseball for many years,” he said. He is married to Mary Margaret Sellers, who went to Stonewall Jackson High and grew up in New Market. He has five grandchildren and two daughters: Sarah Hill Hollar Buczynski, 45, and Maureen Hollar McKenna, 39, who went to Broadway High.

In the 75 and over group, he ran a 5K on July 5 in Harrisonburg as the only entry in his age group. “As an adult, I have run about 240 races from 5K to 1/2 marathon,” he noted.

Notes

• The Hollar brothers played at Broadway for baseball coach Joe Jones, who played at North Carolina State and in the Valley League. The first full-time athletic director at Broadway, he went into the school’s athletic Hall of Fame in 2023.
• The MLB draft in 1967 was 64 rounds – it was 20 rounds this July.
• Two former Broadway baseball players who came from Division I programs played for Bridgewater College this past season: Bryce Suters, who started out at JMU and hit. 306 for BC; and shortstop Bransen Hensley, who was at West Virginia and batted .353 for BC. Other Division I transfers for the Eagles in 2025 were pitcher Evan Bert (Harrisonburg High, VCU); pitcher Cam Nuckols (VCU); and Zack Chadwell (.393), who is from Chesapeake and began his college career at High Point. “Cam Nuckols is a pitcher for us. Second team All-Conference this past season. He is playing with the Peninsula Pilots in the Coastal Plains League,” noted BC coach Ben Spotts, a graduate of Fort Defiance. Nuckols was 5-3, 3.36, while Bert was 5-2, 5.77, this past season for BC. Nuckols, from Chesterfield, had an ERA of 0.80 in games through Sunday for the first-place Pilots.
• Noah Hughes of Fishersville and Wilson Memorial was recently named the head tennis coach at Bridgewater. He played for the Eagles and is a former coach at Ferrum.
• Besides Hunter Hollar, the Orioles also drafted several other players from Virginia high schools in 1967. They also selected a pair of future MLB All-Stars: infielder Bobby Grich of California and outfielder and Texas native Don Baylor, as well as future big league pitchers Dave Johnson and Doug Rau, who appeared in the World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1977 and 1978. The first two picks by the Orioles, Grich and Baylor, combined for 560 MLB homers.
• Recent Broadway grad Josiah Crider, a catcher, is headed to West Virginia University to play baseball. Jackson Ingram of Staunton and The Miller School of Albemarle was a freshman infielder for WVU in 2025.

David Driver is a Harrisonburg native who played baseball at Turner Ashby, Harrisonburg Legion Post 27, EMU and for Clover Hill in the RCBL. He is the co-author of “From Tidewater to the Shenandoah: Snapshots from Virginia’s Rich Baseball Legacy,” which is available on the websites of Amazon and Barnes and Noble and at daytondavid.com.