Doug Holleman opened up an old brown envelope and poured out photos and newspaper clippings from years gone by onto his living room endtable. Each article, browned with time, speaks of the athletic prowess of Holleman, a four-sport athlete and 1941 graduate of Cary High.

There are a few stories from his football days — like the one where Holleman ran two punts for touchdowns and outscored the Green Hope High team by himself — but for the most part these pieces of Cary history are about basketball, where Holleman starred on Cary’s 1939 state championship team.

Holleman opened up another envelope on Monday, this one coming in the mail to the house he built and has lived in since 1947.

It was from the Town of Cary, but it brought back the same memories from that 1939 Class B championship team.

In that letter, Holleman was made aware that at halftime of the Cary-Panther Creek boys’ basketball game on Tuesday, Feb. 10, he would be honored as the only living member of the 1939 team.

The Town of Cary also declared the 10th “Doug Holleman Day,” after the man that 70 years ago, as a sophomore, led Cary to the state championship with a 21-17 win over Mount Airy.

Since then even the game ball, which the team signed and was allowed to keep as its unofficial trophy, can’t be found. Only team captain Holleman, who had 13 points in the final, remains.

“I think it’s very nice of them having it,” Holleman said. “I’m the only one left, so they said they were going to have a Doug Holleman Day. I thought that was real nice.”

Other than the banner that now hangs in Cary’s gymnasium, this will be the first time the 1939 team has been honored. According to Holleman there were no such celebrations for the 50th or even 60th anniversary teams.

The idea to honor this year’s team first came to former Cary athletics director Guy Mendenhall one day as he was driving home.

“I just thought since that banner says 1939 and it was 2009 it would be a good idea to do this,” Mendenhall said. “It was things coming together.”

Mendenhall, who played at Cary in the 1950s, took the idea to the Town of Cary and Cary athletics director Kurt Glendenning, and both were glad to oblige in the ceremonies that will take place seventy years after Hollemon’s first memories of that championship game were forged. Memories that linger today.

“We played over at Chapel Hill, we played Mount Airy and it was a very exciting time. I was nervous at the start of the game, but as soon as they threw that ball up that was all gone — I was ready to play,” Holleman said. “It was a fun time.”

Holleman started at center for coach Young (Y.B.) Howard, and the entire offense ran through him.

“I never ran into anybody I couldn’t get the tip on in a jump ball,” Holleman said. “I could jump. I’ve never been able to dunk a ball but I could jump up and grab hold of the rim. I played the post and they broke off me and I could give it them over my head, back behind me as they were coming down the baseline ... I had pretty good hands and kept my back to the basket.”

In a time when games rarely made it over the 40-point mark, Holleman routinely scored in double-figures during the 1939 season.

It wasn’t uncommon for him to outscore entire teams by himself, like when he had 22 points as Cary downed Apex 48-18.

“They couldn’t stop me unless they kept me from getting the ball,” Holleman said, adding he went to the hook-shot often. “If I got the ball anywhere down low in the key I could score.”

Holleman had two more chances to win state titles. In 1940, Holleman again had 13 points in the title game, but Cary was cut down by Walnut Cove 45-22.

The next year, it was Haynes High from Winston-Salem that denied Cary.

After his days at Cary were done, Holleman went into the Coast Guard at a time when the service academies were dominant in sports. He scored 27 points as the Coast Guard team defeated Wake Forest University.

While also in the Coast Guard, Holleman served in World War II, and was part of Operation Torch — a British-American invasion of French North Africa.

After the war, he came back to Cary and worked 41 years for the Southern Bell telephone company. The company gave him a ring when he retired and a watch with an inscription thanking him after 30 years of service.

In his spare time, he refereed college and high school games — mostly football and basketball.

These days, even at age 88, Holleman still makes it a point to go to Cary basketball games.

“I still go to most of them, home games anyway,” Holleman said. “I don’t like driving at night because of my eyes, but I make it to most of the home games.”

Holleman, who lives with his wife of 66 years, Frances Holleman, their son Steve and dog Buddy, said he is sure to have plenty of family on hand for the honor.

“All my family will be there I expect,” Holleman said. “I’ve got five grandkids and eight great-grandkids and had a set of twins born just before Christmas.”

On Tuesday, there will be a reception for Holleman that starts at 6:30 in the gymnasium’s lobby. Former Cary basketball coach Charlie Adams, now head of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, will be there to represent the NCHSAA and present plaques to honor Holleman.