Hockey Canada reorganized its structure in July 1976, and Holmes' title was executive secretary-treasurer at the time. Holmes scouted the competition at the 1976 Ice Hockey World Championships, and predicted that no country would dominate the upcoming 1976 Canada Cup. He later felt that Team Canada was favoured, on a team assembled by Sam Pollock. Holmes said that reestablishing the Canadian Olympic hockey team became more likely, due to the 1976 Canada Cup allowing best-on-best competition for Canada. The Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union proposed developing a university team for the 1980 Winter Olympics, but Holmes thought that it would exclude deserving junior ice hockey players. Holmes supported Father David Bauer being put in charge of a committee for selecting a team for the 1980 Winter Olympics.