Sporting Chance
When former Alabama quarterback Gary Hollingsworth was diagnosed with cancer, he relied on the lessons he learned on the field — and on the job — to emerge victorious.
By Laura Kostelny · Photographs by Angela Lowry
Gary Hollingsworth in his office at Clayton Alabama, where he is the general manager.
Gary Hollingsworth has had a ball for most of his life — both literally and figuratively. Growing up in Hamilton, Alabama, he spent his youth passing footballs, pitching baseballs and shooting basketballs. By the time he started thinking about college, he figured he’d play baseball at Auburn. But life — and Alabama football coach Ray Perkins — had other plans for him. “Alabama was the first school that recruited me, and they wanted me to play football,” the now-58-year-old Hollingsworth explains.
Hollingsworth during Alabama’s 1989 matchup with Ole Miss at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Although he pitched for Alabama for a year, he mainly concentrated on honing his skills as the backup quarterback. Then in 1989, Hollingsworth stepped up to starter and led the Crimson Tide to a 10-1 season and an SEC title. “I grew up an Auburn fan, but the offense Alabama ran really suited me better at the time,” he says. “I wasn’t fast, so what they did from a scheme standpoint fit me better than Auburn. It all worked out the way it was meant to.”
No. 14 Gary Hollingsworth in the 1989 Alabama-Tennessee game. As quarterback, he led the Crimson Tide to a 10-1 season and an SEC title.
After playing for another year, the quarterback graduated with a degree in marketing and got into the pharmaceutical sales game. He didn’t love it. Luckily, one of his best childhood friends showed up with an audible. “He was in the manufactured housing business. He said, ‘Come talk to us,’” Hollingsworth says.
Turns out, it was a good call. In 1991, Hollingsworth accepted a sales position at Cavalier Homes (later purchased by Clayton, the facility is now named Clayton Alabama) before being promoted to sales manager and then general manager. “We have close to 300 team members. Between team members and homebuyers, there’s always something going on, and the days go by fast,” he says. “I left for three years to work in site-built housing, but I missed the camaraderie of the people in the office and facility, so I came back.”
Gary stands in front of the roof building section of the home building facility. Clayton Alabama builds nearly 700 homes each year.
That esprit de corps became especially important in 2018 when Hollingsworth — and more importantly, his wife, Sharyn — noticed a knot that popped up beneath his left jaw, seemingly overnight. It was Sharyn who insisted on making an appointment with their family physician immediately.
Gary with his wife, Sharon
When the growth didn’t go away after 10 days of antibiotics, Hollingsworth returned for a follow-up appointment with an ear, nose and throat specialist. That’s when he got the shock of his life. “The doctor asked if I smoked or dipped, and I said no to both. His next question jarred me: ‘Is this your first cancer?’ He hadn’t even taken blood yet, but he knew,” says Hollingsworth. “He told me, ‘You’re a 50-year-old white male with a mass in your neck. My belief is that it’s cancer until we find out something different.’”
Gameday in Tuscaloosa with the Hollingsworths — son Drake, wife Sharyn, granddaughter Scottie, daughter-in-law Nicole and daughter Callie.
Sure enough, just 11 days later, Hollingsworth had neck surgery to remove cancer from his left tonsil along with eight lymph nodes. “The knot was an enlarged lymph node — it was doing its job. It had encapsulated the cancer and started growing,” he says. “I hadn’t had a lot of people in my life who had been affected by cancer, so I wasn’t smart about it. I’d always heard that once it was in the lymph nodes, you’re done.” He was far from it. “Once we had a plan — you can call it corny, but the competitive mindset of sports kicked in; either cancer was going to win, or I was going to win. That’s how I looked at it each and every day,” he says.
A winning attitude became especially paramount post-surgery, when Hollingsworth spent six weeks at M.D. Anderson undergoing six rounds of chemo and 33 rounds of radiation. “I had thought about staying in Alabama to have my treatments, but M.D. Anderson has 60 doctors on the main floor who only treat head and neck cancer all day, every day,” he says. To that end, they provided Hollingsworth with a top-notch recovery team that included a dentist, dietitian and speech pathologist, along with an ENT and oncologist.
“Working for Clayton and the support I got from my boss and everyone else was incredible. They were mad at me when I considered staying in Birmingham for treatment,” Hollingsworth says. “To have the people you work with and for say, ‘Go, get healthy,’ was so hugely appreciated. Nothing about having cancer is easy, but it made it easier.”
Gary inspects an OSB subfloor with Department Manager Jordan Ellis.
Eight years later, the father of two is happy to report he remains cancer-free and able to focus his resilience, discipline and gift for team-building in service of others — coaching people through cancer diagnoses, offering support to his sales team and assisting customers who are making game-changing decisions. “Working at Clayton, you’re part of something big, and that’s fun,” Hollingsworth says. “We’re building homes for people — a place where they’re going to raise kids and celebrate Thanksgiving. We’re helping them build a life.”
