Friday, February 18, 2022 | General, Men's Swimming & Diving, Men's Tennis, Track and Field, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — One made history in the pool at the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics. One coached the U.S. Track & Field Team at last summer's Tokyo Games. And one became the first Division I head coach to lead a women's and men's tennis team to a national championship.
Their professional careers are as diverse as the campus on which they work.
Still, Gators head coaches Anthony Nesty, Mike Holloway and Bryan Shelton stand on common ground beyond their jobs: they are Black men whose journeys to success did not come with a road map, and red carpet rolled out.
Each man overcame different challenges and excelled in their respective sports, breaking barriers along the way. Once their time as competitors ended, they found their calling as coaches.
In honor of Black History Month, we shine a spotlight on three men familiar to Gators fans and sports enthusiasts across the globe: ANTHONY NESTY
Position: Head coach of UF men's and women's swimming teams Age: 54 Hometown: Paramaribo, Suriname
Gators swim coach Anthony Nesty surfaced on the world stage when he won a gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics. (Photo: Courtney Culbreath/UAA Communications)
Nesty has been a staple on the Florida campus for 30 years, first as a Gators All-American swimmer, then as a longtime assistant coach, and finally, head coach.
Nesty made international headlines during his college career when he became the first Black swimmer to win a gold medal at the Olympics. At the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, South Korea, Nesty upset heavy American favorite Matt Biondi in the 100-meter butterfly.
Nesty's unlikely victory turned him into a media sensation. His victory stunned Olympic officials, who had to scramble for a tape of the Suriname national anthem to play as Nesty stood on the winner's stand. Suriname, located on the northeast coach of South America and formerly known as Dutch Guiana until it became an independent nation in 1975, had never won an Olympic medal.
In less than a minute, Nesty became a national hero.
"The country was going through some tough times then,'' Nesty told the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald years later. "The economy was bad; inflation was high, some things were hard to get. For those people, it was 53 seconds that made them forget about a lot of tough years."
Nesty's racial heritage became a massive story during the games. He made waves in a sport dominated by whites. Nesty attributed economics as the primary reason behind the lack of success for Blacks in the pool.
"There is no money in swimming,'' he said. "At least, none in comparison to what they can earn on the track, or in football or basketball."
Nesty continued to win on the biggest stages after his moment in Seoul, winning three consecutive NCAA titles in the 100-meter butterfly from 1990-92 and a bronze at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
In 2020, Nesty was named the men's swimming and diving representative on the Southeastern Conference Council on Racial Equity and Social Justice.
He has spent his professional career teaching the next generation of swimmers about life inside and outside the pool. He has a great story to share.
"I didn't consider myself Black as I stood on that podium,'' Nesty once said. "The thought didn't enter my mind. I wasn't Black, white or any color – I was a swimmer." MIKE HOLLOWAY
Position: Head coach of UF men's and women's track & field teams Age: 63 Hometown: Columbus, Ohio
Univeristy of Florida track coach Mike Holloway has raised the standard of excellence since he took over the Gators. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
Holloway is one of the most decorated track & field coaches in history today, reaching another milestone as head coach of Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics last summer. Not bad for a kid from Ohio whose most meaningful moment as a college competitor was a third-place finish in the 60-yard high hurdles at the 1979 NJCAA Indoor Championships.
Holloway found his way to Gainesville to run track at Santa Fe College after high school. It's been home ever since, highlighted by his remarkable run as a coach – first at a pair of local high schools – and then as a volunteer coach, assistant coach, and now head coach with the Gators.
Holloway has done it all. He has won nine national championships as the UF men's head coach. He's coached Olympians. He is an inductee into multiple halls of fames.
What he hasn't done is do it alone. A spiritual man and pillar in the community, Holloway is quick to praise all those who have helped him along the way, whether it was by offering an opportunity, advice, or encouragement.
"He's the same guy," Ed Stone, Holloway's coach at Linden-McKinley (Ohio) High in the 1970s, told FloridaGators.com in 2019. "He's just a humble guy who realizes he's been fortunate to be in places at the right time."
Stone and many others, such as former Santa Fe head coach and Gators assistant Brooks Johnson, former UF women's track coach Lyle Knudson, and former UF Athletic Director Jeremy Foley, say the same thing about Holloway.
Holloway's track record as a coach speaks for itself. But they talk more about the man.
When Holloway examines his approach to coaching and dealing with people, he credits his mother, Nelvina Holloway, for his straightforward approach and open-mindedness.
"She would always tell me, 'If you are honest and true to people, they know who you are. They don't have to guess about what they're dealing with.' That's what I appreciate about her,'' Holloway said in 2019.
In the summer of 2020, as social unrest sparked protests across the country and divided family and friends, Holloway penned a first-person piece for FloridaGators.com about his experiences as a Black man living in America.
Later that year, he joined fellow UF coaches on a video call to discuss the ongoing racial climate in America. Ultimately, Holloway urged others to be accepting.
"It wasn't easy. People have lost friends over this. I've lost friends over this, but it's a conversation that has to be had,'' he said at the time. "The way I look at it, those people weren't my friends anyway, so I'm good with that. But enough's enough, man. It's time to move forward. It's time to stop judging people by the color of their skin." BRYAN SHELTON
Position: Head coach of UF men's tennis team Age: 56 Hometown: Huntsville, Ala.
UF men's tennis coach Bryan Shelton inspects the national championship trophy his team won in 2021. (Photo: Courtney Culbreath/UAA Communications)
He grew up in the Deep South as a Black kid playing a sport in which few others looked like him. That didn't deter Bryan Shelton from reaching the brightest stages the game has to offer.
He played in the French Open. He played at Wimbledon. He played in the U.S. Open.
When Shelton retired from playing, he started coaching. He won a national title as the women's coach at Georgia Tech in 2007. In the spring of 2021, he led the Gators men's team to a national championship, becoming the first coach in Division I history to win both a women's and men's national title.
Shelton discovered the game by accident.
"I was riding my bike near my house in the summertime at 8 years old, and happened by the local junior high school to find some kids and a coach at the courts for summer camp,'' Shelton wrote in an essay for the USTA last year. "I pulled up, looking from outside the fence, and the instructor asked if I wanted to come join the group. I jumped onto the courts, and they put a racquet in my hands. I came back for the rest of the week.
"At the end of the week, I won a Jack Kramer-autographed tennis racquet for winning a competition for getting the most serves in the box, and all I could say was, 'Wow.' Next thing you know, I was off and running."
Shelton grew up in a low-middle-income family and a mixed-raced community. He played other sports, but tennis eventually became his game.
His parents planted the seeds of his success.
"They taught us what was important, right from wrong,'' Shelton said. "We learned the 'Golden Rule' of treat people the way you want to be treated. But growing up in the South in Alabama, I started to get a dose of reality at a young age."
Shelton experienced discrimination from competitors and tournament organizers. As he began to blossom into a top junior player, when people discovered he was Black, he might not be invited back to a tournament the year after winning it.
"I had some situations where I realized that the world is not all kind, that not everyone has good intentions,'' he said.
Shelton accepted the realities and stayed close to those whom he knew looked out for his best interests, such as Bill Tym, "my mentor from the time I was 13 years old."
Tym taught Shelton that if you wanted something bad enough, you would put in the work and make sacrifices. Shelton did to become one of the game's most respected coaches.
He has learned a lot since that summer when he was 8.
"If I could give myself advice as a kid, I would say, 'continue to value people that really care about you, and let them know you value them.' In this world, you can't do it alone."
