Robert Holmes, a member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders team that reached the 1976 Grey Cup game, died Saturday.
He was 72.
A product of Huntsville, Texas, Holmes was named the Kansas City Chiefs’ rookie of the year in 1968 after rushing for 866 yards and seven touchdowns in 14 games for the American Football League team. He was selected to play in the Pro Bowl the following season.
Holmes also won an AFL-NFL title with the Chiefs, who beat the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV in January of 1970.
Following three-plus seasons with the Chiefs, Holmes had stints in the NFL with the Houston Oilers (1971-72, 1975) and San Diego Chargers (1973). He spent the 1974 season with the World Football League’s Portland Storm.
In 89 career regular-season AFL and NFL games, the 5-foot-9, 220-pound Holmes — whose nickname was Tank — rushed 639 times for 2,510 yards and 23 touchdowns and caught 113 passes for 982 yards with four TDs.
In 1976, Holmes signed with the Roughriders in the latter stages of the regular season.
“When he arrived, he had that big smile on his face and that huge Super Bowl ring,” said Steve Mazurak, who was a receiver with the Roughriders at that time. “From the moment we saw him on the practice field, it was like he had been given a new life.
“From the way he lifted his knees up, I would pity anybody who tried to get in front of that guy. He was a tank. I don’t know if (the nickname) was something we coined or if it was something he had carried with him since elementary school, but nobody fit a nickname better than Robert ‘Tank’ Holmes.”
Holmes played five games for Saskatchewan in the ’76 regular season, rushing 44 times for 181 yards and catching seven passes for 66 yards.
But due to roster juggling, he didn’t play in Saskatchewan’s 23-13 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos in the Western Conference final. Nor did he dress for the Grey Cup contest against the Ottawa Rough Riders, who defeated the Roughriders 23-20.
Holmes returned to Texas after the ’76 season, but moved back to Saskatchewan in the early 1980s. In 2015, he was one of the Roughriders of African descent who were recognized by the Saskatchewan African Canadian Heritage Museum as athletes who “played and stayed.”
“It was nice that he ‘played and stayed’ and made a home up here,” Mazurak said. “He came to the odd alumni function and every time I saw Robert, it was a warm conversation. His eyes would light up and he had that big, bright smile.
“He was as friendly a guy as you could ever meet — and as hard-nosed a running back as you could ever play with.”
A memorial service is to be held for Holmes on Saturday, 1 p.m., at the Victoria Avenue Funeral Home, 2080 Victoria Ave. E.
