‘Major league play’ by Holloway helped make it happen
By Steve Williams
Joe O’Brien threw the first no-hitter in University of Tennessee baseball history in 1973 according to official UT records, and in addition to that he is the only pitcher from Knox County to toss a no-no wearing the Orange and White.
After 53 years, O’Brien was happy to find that out Thursday.
Credit longtime UT Sports Information Director Bud Ford, who is now the Athletic Historian in the Tennessee Media Relations, for finding the records that had been placed in another area on campus long after Stokely Athletics Center had been torn down.
The discovery would lead to O’Brien reliving and sharing big moments from the Vols’ 3-0 win over visiting Georgia that March 30th day at Lower Hudson Field.
Only a first-inning error kept the Knoxville Catholic High product from recording a perfect game.
Tennessee’s clean-up slugger, Bobby Tucker, soon drove a three-run homer over the left-centerfield fence.
Coach Bill Wright’s Vols (6-6) had control of the game against the 2-5 Bulldogs, but one good swing can quickly spoil a no-hitter. For a second, O’Brien felt just that in the last inning.
“Games like that go by pretty fast,” recalled Joe, a senior then. “In the top of the seventh I knew I had a no-hitter going, but there was a ball that was hit off the plate that bounced over my head and I’m thinking to myself ‘that’s a base hit.’ I turn around and (sophomore shortstop) Condredge (Holloway) is making an unbelievable play. And the runner he threw out was the starting quarterback for Georgia, Andy Johnson, and he was fast as lightning. Condredge got him by a step and that saved the no-hitter, because the next batter popped up.
“It was a major league play by Condredge Holloway. I don’t think anybody else in the league would have been able to make the play … He made a lot of those.”
O’Brien went on to say “if we had ESPN back then, it would have been the top play of the day. He barehanded it, charging it … all I can say is it was big league all the way.”
Joe added Condredge, who went on to play in the Canadian Football League after starring for the Vols, “was the best teammate I’ve ever had in my life, just a terrific young man and everybody looked up to him.”
Since O’Brien, a right-hander, became the first to throw a no-hitter at UT, four others are in that category. Jeffery Terrell became the first Vol to throw a nine-inning no hitter in 2002 against Bowling Green. He still remains the only one in the nine-inning category.
In addition to O’Brien, three others threw seven-inning no-hitters – Bob Dillon against Kentucky in 1990, Jimmy Gaylor against Tennessee Tech in 1976 and Rick Honeycutt at Georgia in 1976.
UT has had five more no-hitters when multiple pitchers combined for the no-no. Liam Doyle was in two of them in 2025 as well as Gaylor and Honeycutt in 1976.
After his college career, O’Brien was drafted by Philadelphia. He pitched 2½ seasons in the Phillies’ farm system, and got as high as the Eastern League and was put on a Triple-A roster. His best season produced a 13-5 record with 11 saves, but he got tired of moving up and down and riding in the buses so he decided to give it up.
His baseball days didn’t end then, however, and he joined his father, Jimmy O’Brien, who managed a Stan Musial League team and they won the World Series twice and were runner-up twice.
