He doesn’t know where a lot of it came from, but it’s always come naturally. When a big shot gets the “down the pickle barrel, baby!” treatment, it’s probably because he thought of a peach basket and it reminded him of a pickle barrel. A woman approached him at the airport wondering why he described a Griz team that was once up by a large margin but soon found itself in close battle as being “on the deck.”

“Military terms probably figure into my play-by-play,” he said. “I was in the military and I talk like it.”

He said he tries to describe the game as vibrantly as he does — his voice often reflects the emotion of the moment — because a blind friend of his once told him that he had to the ears, eyes, and nose. So he has strived to be that for every person that flicks on the radio.

After he was let go from the Spokane (Wash.) Spokesman-Review for trying to organize teamsters, Holien came to Missoula to run Westside Lanes Bowling Alley. He was there calling a moonlight bowling session when a man who asked if he’d like to get on the radio and play music. That grew into a job as the KGVO news director. Not long after, he auditioned to be a high school play-by-by man. Soon enough he was calling Lady Griz games and six years later transitioned into calling Griz basketball and football.