CapstoneEngineerMagazineFall2026 - Flipbook - Page 16
| FEATURE |
LIVING LIKE A CHAMPION:
HOW LESSONS FROM BEAR BRYANT AND THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA
SHAPED VICKI HOLLUB’S PATH TO LEADING A FORTUNE 500 COMPANY
By Emily Fischer
BEFORE VICKI HOLLUB EVER LED AN OIL COMPANY,
SHE STUDIED ANOTHER KIND OF TEAM.
“This will age me,” she joked. “I was born the year after Bear
Bryant started at Alabama.”
Hollub grew up watching head football coach Bear Bryant
turn The University of Alabama into a football powerhouse.
Bryant’s teams and lessons became her foundational model for
discipline, teamwork and the relentless pursuit of excellence.
“He was such a larger-than-life 昀椀gure in the state for all of us
who grew up in that era,” Hollub said of Bryant.
Though Hollub always knew she would attend UA, she wasn’t
certain what she would study.
She had played the French horn in her high school band and
always felt like someone from her school ought to make the
all-state team at least once. No one from her school had ever
been. She had friends who were talented enough but did not put
in suf昀椀cient effort. Hollub, on the other hand, practiced all the
time.
After eventually making all-state band, Hollub thought she
must be “pretty good.” So, when it came time to pick a college
major, music seemed like a sensible choice.
At the end of her 昀椀rst semester at UA, Hollub’s primary
instrument instructor asked her what she planned to do for a
career. She told him she wanted to be in a symphony. He told
her she would need to make signi昀椀cant improvements to reach
that level.
“He was very blunt. At the time, it was very shocking to
have someone tell you that the major you thought you’d be
successful at, well, you were more likely to turn out to be the
band director,” Hollub said. “Which wouldn’t have been a
bad profession, except that I knew how many tricks we had
played on our band director — and I didn’t want to deal
with kids always doing that to me, so I didn’t want to
be a band director.”
Rather than dwell on the setback, Hollub looked
for her next opportunity. Many of Hollub’s friends
had family members who worked in the coal mines
in Tuscaloosa, so she pivoted and set her sights on
coal mining engineering. As she explored the 昀椀eld,
Hollub visited a coal mine with UA’s College of
Engineering, where she recalls being cold and
realizing that she was also claustrophobic.
16 | CAPSTONE ENGINEER | FALL 2026
Next, the College took her to a drilling rig.
“I was so fascinated by the activity and the incredible size of
the equipment needed to drill into the oil and the way it drove
the world economy and helped people to have a better life,”
she said. Hollub had found her passion.
After graduating from UA in 1981 with a bachelor’s
degree in mineral engineering, Hollub went to work in LaSalle
Parish, Louisiana. She remembers few women working in
昀椀eld operations and felt that the men who worked there
found her presence out of place. Discussing SEC football
became both an icebreaker and a bonding tool for Hollub,
helping her connect with her coworkers. As a lifelong
Crimson Tide fan, she decided to channel that same devotion
into her career.
