John Holland

John Davison Holland Jr. (February 18, 1910 – July 15, 1979) was an American baseball executive who served as general manager of the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball from 1956 to 1975. Early career The Wichita, Kansas, native was a former minor league catcher who had toiled as an executive in the Cub farm system for the Visalia Cubs of the California League, Des Moines Bruins of the Western League, and Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League — then the Cubs' top farm team. GM during 'College of Coaches' era Holland was promoted from the PCL Angels to succeed Wid Matthews as general manager of the Cubs after the end of the 1956 season. He brought with him Bob Scheffing as the Cubs' new manager. Scheffing, a former Cub catcher and coach, had won the PCL pennant with the Angels in 1956. But the Cubs were in the midst of a two-decade-long tenancy in the second division of the National League. After Scheffing and his successors, Charlie Grimm and Lou Boudreau, could not rouse the club from its doldrums, owner Philip K. Wrigley decided on a radical departure after the 1960 season: the Cubs became the only team in the history of Major League Baseball to dispense with the position of field manager. Wrigley's College of Coaches employed a series of rotating (and then more permanent) "head coaches" from 1961 to 1965. In 1963, the experiment seemed to hold promise, as head coach Bob Kennedy led the team to an 82–80 finish, the Cubs' first winning record since 1946. But they reverted to losing seasons in 1964–65, and the College of Coaches experiment was abandoned at the end of the 1965 season, when Leo Durocher was hired to manage the Cubs.