Torry Holt, the former NC State star, opens up about life, football and family

As a child growing up in Gibsonville, N.C., Torry Holt occasionally pulled tobacco for $5 an hour. Holt would later grow up to make millions in the NFL after starring at N.C. State, where the wide receiver was named the ACC’s Player of the Year in 1998.

Our interview subject this week for “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” Holt once scored five touchdowns in a single game for the Wolfpack against Florida State. Following an All-American senior season at N.C. State, he was drafted No. 6 overall by the St. Louis Rams in 1999.

Holt quickly won a Super Bowl with the Rams as a rookie and became an essential part of an offense quarterbacked by Kurt Warner and known as “The Greatest Show on Turf.” He made the Pro Bowl seven times and had six consecutive seasons of 1,300 or more receiving yards.

Now 47, Holt has moved back to the Raleigh area. There, he and his brother Terrence, also a former NFL player, run Holt Brothers Inc., and are involved in a variety of business and philanthropic ventures, including a successful construction company and a charitable foundation that supports children who have a parent with cancer.

This conversation was conducted while Holt was visiting Charlotte, serving in his role as an NFL global flag football ambassador for a USA Football event. The interview is edited for clarity and brevity. For a much fuller version, check out the “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” podcast.

Scott Fowler: Describe what your playing style was on the football field.

Torry Holt: Smooth. Determined. Competitive. A hard worker. And I had a lot of fun. I enjoyed competing and doing what I had dreamed of doing since I was a little kid growing up in Gibsonville, N.C., running around in the backyard or running around out in the streets in the neighborhood, throwing a ball up to myself.

I just loved the game of football and had so many uncles and aunties who played athletics, and there were guys at the collegiate level like Tony Dorsett, Art Monk, Jerry Rice and Mike Quick that I watched and wanted to emulate.

SF: What was Gibsonville like?

TH: Small town — everybody knew each other. A family atmosphere. Everyone wasn’t kin to one another, but it felt like that. So if you got out of line, the adults had permission to get on your butt. They would walk you to your mom and dad and say, “Hey, this is what was going on.”... I grew up pulling tobacco when I was young. I also grew up working at Burger King, which is just right off of Interstate 40.

SF: What age were you when you began pulling tobacco?

TH: About 14-15 years old. I couldn’t get a work permit yet and I wanted some money, for new cleats, new shoes — the things that most teenagers want. I was making $5 an hour, maybe $25-30 for the day. (After work) I’d go down to Jack’s Barbecue, get me a Big Boy, some fries and a sweet tea. Then I’d put some aside to buy something and, if my mom or dad needed the money, they could use it as well.

That was tough work. It really gave me the tools that I needed to play football because you build up a tough exterior, being out there in the morning time with those snakes. It shaped and molded me, and it also constantly reminded me that I did not want to pull tobacco for the rest of my life.

SF: Your mother passed away while you were in college after a long fight with cancer. How did you cope?

TH: It was my sophomore year. I’m just kind of just getting my feet wet in school, and trying to establish myself. It was traumatic, and I didn’t know how to deal with it. My mother was hard-working, loving, encouraging. So when she passed away, a part of me left.

I started questioning if I wanted to go back to school. With her not being there, I was like: “Why should I go on?”

But my aunties, and my coaches at N.C. State, talked to me and said, “Hey look, you are fulfilling your dream as a student-athlete. That’s what your mother wanted. It’s probably best if you come back to honor her.” And I sat down and I thought about it. Cried about it. And decided to change my mind and go back.

And boy, when I went back, things changed for me. It fueled me to really get into the gym more, get into the film room more, listen better, take care of academics a lot better than what I had been doing. I took a negative experience and created something positive out of it.

Favorite games at N.C. State

SF: What were a couple of your favorite games at N.C. State?

TH: In my junior year (1997), we went to Syracuse. And Syracuse was ragging on us, man. They weren’t giving us a chance. That was Donovan McNabb’s Syracuse. They were loaded. But we kept it close and it ended up in overtime, and I caught the pass in overtime (on a two-point conversion) to win that game. And I remember sprinting down Syracuse’s sideline, and I flipped the ball to (Syracuse coach) Paul Pasqualoni, because his team was disrespecting us.

I never was a guy who did a whole lot of trash-talking, but that particular day I had had enough.

And then the second one is the year we beat Florida State in Carter-Finley (in 1998, when the Wolfpack upset the No. 2 Seminoles, 24-7, as a 25-point underdog. Holt scored two TDs, both of 60-plus yards).

I thought winning that game for our fans and for our city — it changed the trajectory of N.C. State football. We proved we could beat the bully.

Playing for ‘Greatest Show on Turf’

SF: Describe how playing for the NFL’s “Greatest Show on Turf” felt.

TH: Kurt Warner stepped in my rookie year (in 1999, after starter Trent Green was hurt in a preseason game) and we didn’t skip a beat. Kurt was ready, and his Arena League skill set fit the type of offense we ran — all about timing and precision, getting the ball out quick, throwing the ball to spots and throwing it deep.

Kurt threw one of the most beautiful deep balls that I’ve ever seen in my life. And then all the talent he had around him — we were loaded. It was a perfect marriage.

SF: When you raised your hands, I noticed your fingers. How did that happen?

TH: We were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers. I’m blocking Deshea Townsend. Marshall (Faulk) was coming. Deshea went to get away and my finger got caught in his jersey. It popped out. I popped it back in, ran over to the sideline, taped it up and ran back in to play the game.

I went on and played another 5-6 years with those dislocations. I’ve had so many, there’s no ligaments in this finger now. I could have surgery on it, but I’m tired of surgeries.

SF: How is your health after all the football you played?

TH: I appreciate you asking, because that’s what I ask folks when I talk to them — particularly former players. “How are you doing?”

And I’m doing OK. I’m able to get up and move around. Now my knees and my back and my hands and sometime give me issues. But that’s just from the wear and tear of playing in the National Football League for 11 years and the physicality that comes with that.

I don’t have to say this, but I will: I just had my colonoscopy. It was clean. So now I’m a big advocate of encouraging other men, particularly men of color, to go and make sure that they’re taking care of the colonoscopy, making sure they’re taking care of their prostate.

But I have a pretty clean bill of health and my goal is to keep it that way. And I try to make sure that I take care of my diet. Try to exercise and try to make sure that I take care of my mental health as well. I try to make sure that I pray, and then my communication with my former teammates is critical too.

I love my teammates and my former coaches. They helped me get to this point. And for us (former football players), all of our lives, we’ve been in locker rooms, been involved with teams and had teammates. So I want to make sure that I keep that alive while I’m done playing.

The Hall of Fame vote

SF: You are in many halls of fame already, but the Pro Football Hall of Fame has eluded you so far. You’ve been a finalist in several extremely close votes. Does that bother you?

TH: Being very candid with you, it has its challenges. But I’m also thankful to be mentioned as a potential Pro Football Hall of Famer. That’s really cool. To be a finalist four years in a row, that’s really cool.

But I’m ready, man … I feel like it’s my time. I feel like I’ve earned the opportunity to be voted in. And the reason why I say that is because of the responses that I get from guys who are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and then the guys that I played against: The respect and the love and appreciation that they had for the way that I played the game. ... I have a sense of resolve and of calmness about how the process works.

I’ve just got to sit back and trust the process. I have people who are championing me. Now I’ve just got to get a few more folks to get me across the finish line.

SF: Tell me about your three children.

TH: So I have three kids, and they’re all at N.C. State. Go Pack!

My son Brayden is the oldest. He’s 22 years old and is in the civil engineering department at N.C. State. Folks ask me about my son: “Does he play sports?” Nah, he doesn’t play sports. He was smarter than his dad. He used his brain.

I have two daughters: Brianna is a junior. She’s on the soccer team at N.C. State. She’s studying sports management and communications. And then my youngest daughter, Brooklyn, is a sophomore who’s also on the soccer team. So I’ve got two daughters that are playing on the soccer team in N.C. State. And my wife (Carla) went to N.C. State as well. I met her at N.C. State and she also played soccer.

Holt’s ACC Mount Rushmore

SF: You’re a big ACC guy. Give me your Mount Rushmore of ACC sports legends.

TH: Dean Smith, Len Bias, Michael Jordan, Ralph Sampson and David Thompson.

SF: That’s five instead of four, but that’s OK. It’s your Mount Rushmore. Sounds like you’re a big basketball guy?

TH: Huge basketball guy. When I was young, I just grew up watching ACC sports from a young kid. And I knew immediately if I had an opportunity to play collegiate sports, that was the conference that I wanted to go to.

For much more from this interview as well as other “Sports Legends” guests like Steph Curry, Roy Williams, Thomas Davis, Mike Krzyzewski, Bobby Richardson and Dawn Staley, check out the “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” podcast. The “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” coffee table book debuts in November 2023 and is now available to pre-order — at a 20% discount for a limited time — at SportsLegendsBook.com.