George Steadman Holden was an American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 player and manufacturer.

Holden was born in Middlefield, Massachusetts

Middlefield, Massachusetts

Middlefield is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 542 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...

, in 1868. He was the son of Henry Parker and Mary A. (Holmes) Holden. He moved to Palmer, Massachusetts

Palmer, Massachusetts

The Town of Palmer is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,140 as of the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, in 1871 when his father purchased interests in several local businesses. Holden was educated in the Palmer schools and graduated from the Phillips Andover Academy

Phillips Academy

Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...

 in 1886. He studied for three years at Amherst College

Amherst College

Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...

 before transferring to the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

. He played college football

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 and was the starting quarterback

Quarterback

Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...

 for the 1890 Michigan Wolverines football team

1890 Michigan Wolverines football team

The 1890 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1890 college football season. The team compiled a 4–1 record and outscored its opponents by a combined score of 129 to 36. The team captain was William C. Malley. George P. Codd, who later served as the Mayor...

. Holden was a member of the Beta Theta Pi

Beta Theta Pi

Beta Theta Pi , often just called Beta, is a social collegiate fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA, where it is part of the Miami Triad which includes Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Chi. It has over 138 active chapters and colonies in the United States and Canada...

 fraternity while attending both Amherst and Michigan. He graduated from Michigan in 1891. In March 1896, he married Katherine Cramer of Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...

. They had three children, Roger Cramer Holden, Philip Holmes Holden, and Henry Parker Holden. He worked in the woolen business in Palmer, Massachusetts, and became the superintendent of the Palmer Woolen Mill in 1895 and the financial manager starting in 1900. In July 1935, Holden died at his home in Palmer.