Courtesy of Tufts Athletics
Greg Holt may not have projected the typical image of an all-star linebacker. At 5-10, he’s undersized, and he’s mild-mannered by nature. But Holt, a two-year captain of the Tufts football team, proved himself as one of NESCAC’s top tacklers since day one.
Holt finished his career as a four-time All-NESCAC First Team selection. Averaging 10 tackles per game as a senior in 2019, Holt led NESCAC with a total of 90 including four for losses. NESCAC's Rookie of the Year in 2016, Holt finished his career with 344 tackles (9.8 per game).
But Holt was at Tufts to do more than make tackles. He wanted to make the world a better place, committing himself to helping those in need. His social conscience had a lot to do with why he was at Tufts in the first place.
“Talking to Coach Civetti and seeing how important it was to him to build a team around being a good person in the community, which was really important to me in high school, that was a deciding factor,” Holt said. “I could tell how passionate he was about it.”
One of the first things Holt did when he came to Tufts was a volunteer with the Boston Rescue Mission, an organization founded in 1899 that feeds the hungry, shelters the homeless, and provides life-transforming services to those in need. New in town, he took it upon himself to volunteer to prepare and serve meals and spend time socially with the members of that community. Holt was also a Big Brother during his time at Tufts. During the summer of 2018 he did an internship as a housing counselor with Action for Boston Community Development.
As a sociology major, he also participated as a research assistant in a field experiment examining labor market discrimination conducted by sociology assistant professor Felipe Dias.
“Coming to Tufts was probably the best decision I ever made,” he said. “Getting to play Division III football and compete at a high level and getting a great education, and then realizing that you still need to be a member of the community and it’s important to do those things, at Tufts you get the mix of all those.”
