OMAHA, Neb. -- As the climax of the NBA Finals raged on televisions a few feet away and Coastal Carolina completed an opening-round upset of top-seeded Florida nearby at the College World Series, Josh Holliday ducked into a quiet pocket of the lobby at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel with his father, Tom, and 7-year-old son, Brady.
Amid the madness, there was peace. And appreciation on Father's Day.
"If the moment consumes you," Josh said Sunday night, "then you just become a participant. I don't want to be just a participant."
Josh, 39, in his fourth season back at Oklahoma State, is a rookie CWS head coach by definition only. He came to Omaha twice as an OSU player and three times as an assistant at Georgia Tech, Arizona State and Vanderbilt. That's in addition to more than a half-dozen trips as a kid with the Cowboys, for whom his father coached under Gary Ward from 1978 to 1996, then worked as head coach for the next seven seasons.
Tom, 63, played in Omaha at Miami in 1974, then made 16 coaching trips to the CWS. He won a national title under Augie Garrido at Texas in 2005 but never did in 11 visits with Oklahoma State -- the last in 1999 with Josh as his All-Big 12 third baseman.
That appearance preceded a 16-year drought, in fact, for Oklahoma State. It ended on Saturday as Josh's Cowboys beat UC Santa Barbara 1-0 at TD Ameritrade Park. OSU plays Arizona Monday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN for control of Bracket 1 and a three-day break from action.
The Omaha return caps a poignant time for the Holliday family. Tom, out of coaching this year for first time in his adult life, was inducted into the OSU Baseball Hall of Fame two weeks ago.
Dismissed at Auburn last September with coach Sunny Golloway's staff, the elder Holliday said he harbored "bitterness" toward Oklahoma State after the school fired him in 2003. A long period of estrangement followed. Healing began in earnest when Oklahoma State hired Josh in 2013.
Tom said he had never watched an Oklahoma State game from stands before this season. He sat behind third base Saturday at the CWS.
"I'll tell you what it feels like," he said Sunday night, choking back tears. "I played every pitch with him. And I was totally relaxed."
There exists a sense of calm around Josh Holliday here, despite the harried circumstances and opportunity to bring a second national title to his alma mater. The Cowboys won their lone championship in 1959 under Toby Greene.
Ward's team, as young Josh studied every pitch, lost to Arizona State in the 1981 title game. Josh remembers crying as he walked out of Rosenblatt Stadium after OSU played for the crown and lost to Stanford in 1987 and to Georgia in 1990.
He keeps a gray, Omaha T-shirt given to him during that time by Robin Ventura, the legendary Cowboy from Josh's childhood. Josh wore it hundreds of times, he said, under his uniform as a kid.
To Josh, the CWS meant colored stadium seats, cotton candy, the chance to see budding stars like Barry Bonds and Deion Sanders and the voice of longtime Rosenblatt public-address announcer Jack Payne.
"That man's voice," Josh said, "it was like the guy at Yankee Stadium.
"I remember those days like it was yesterday. [Those were] maybe my most joyous memories as a kid."
Josh recalls the 1999 CWS losses to Alabama and Rice. He talks of striking out against with the bases loaded against Rice star Kenny Baugh.
"The games fade," he said, "but the times here, the accomplishments, the friendships, what it meant to play here, that's what galvanizes us."
Tom, after leaving OSU, coached as an assistant at Texas for three years, then North Carolina State for eight seasons and spent 2015 at Auburn.
He said he felt that Oklahoma State fans developed a sense of entitlement during the run of seven straight CWS appearances in the 1980s.
"I think we might have made it look a little too easy," the elder Holliday said. "It wasn't easy."
It's a lesson that Josh needed almost no time to learn in coaching.
"You realize," he said, "that this is really hard."
The Cowboys qualified for NCAA regionals in each of Josh's first three years, losing a super regional at home to UC Irvine in 2014 and a home regional last season. This year, Oklahoma State won its first two rounds of the postseason at Clemson and South Carolina.
Josh, upon returning to Stillwater, brought back the traditional interlocking "OS" on the Cowboys' hats. It had gone away during the Omaha drought.
"It's a responsibility," Josh said. "If you wear that hat, you better start playing like Oklahoma State teams used to play. It's a way to take today's modern kids and educate them about our past, because our past is our biggest strength.
"In order to create a future with new tradition and new pride, you've got to take your strengths and build on them."
The lessons learned from Ward and his father remain inside of Josh and pitching coach Rob Walton, a former OSU star from the golden era who ran a successful program at Oral Roberts until Josh and Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder pried him away in 2013.
"Josh has always been around this," said Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin, for whom Josh coached from 2010 to 2012. "He's seen it from every angle. He can put those experiences in perspective for his kids. It's very helpful.
"And he's got the uncanny ability not to take himself too seriously."
Josh stayed away from the ballpark on Sunday. He directed practice and attended a barbecue with the Cowboys' Omaha service group, then caught a nap at the hotel and enjoyed a downtown dinner at the Jackson Street Tavern with family, including his father and his son.
They traded text messages with Josh's brother, Matt, the St. Louis Cardinals' 36-year-old left fielder and seven-time All-Star who homered Sunday in a home loss.
"He wants constant updates," Josh said. "All the time. He's really excited for us."
In his son, Brady, the Cowboys' bat boy at home games, Josh sees so much of himself.
Just like Josh in the '80s, Brady rattles off the names of the stars at this CWS -- TCU freshman slugger Luken Baker, who hit a game-winning home run Sunday afternoon, and Florida ace Logan Shore, dealt his first loss in 13 decisions later by Coastal Carolina.
Tom and his wife, Kathy, left the hotel late Sunday with the NBA Finals and the CWS game still unsettled. Josh and Brady entered the lobby elevator to find more peace and quiet -- a rarity this week in Omaha.
"Time is precious," Josh said, reflecting on a full Father's Day. "When you have it, spend it together."