Calvin Hill

Calvin G. Hill (born January 2, 1947) is a retired American football running back who had a 12-year NFL career from 1969 to 1981. He played for the Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins and Cleveland Browns. In 1975 he moved to the World Football League to play for The Hawaiians where he carried the ball 49 times for 218 yards and no touchdowns in 1975.^[1]

Hill was named to the Pro Bowl team four times (1969, 1972, 1973 and 1974). In 1972, he became the first Cowboy running back to have a 1,000 yard rushing season (with 1,036 yards rushing); he repeated the feat in the following season with 1,142 yards rushing.

Early Years

Prior to attending ninth grade, he was awarded a scholarship by his family doctor, Dr. William C. Wade, to attend the Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, New York. At Riverdale he was an accomplished athlete in football, basketball, baseball, and track and field, often leading teams that defeated athletic arch-rival Horace Mann School.

It was at Riverdale that he started playing football, and as a sophomore, he was named the starting quarterback running the T formation on a team that accomplished a 51 game winning streak.

By the time his high school career was over, he was named high school All-American and received scholarship offers from UCLA, Notre Dame, the University of Michigan, and Syracuse University. He had just about settled on attending UCLA when one of his assistant coaches suggested him to visit Yale University. After the visit, he decided to attend Yale and try to become the first black quarterback in school history.

College career

The second day of practices at Yale, the coaching staff shifted him to linebacker on the freshman team and gave the quarterback job to Brian Dowling. After four days at linebacker he was moved to halfback, where he remained for the rest of his football career.

Along with Dowling, he led the 1968 Yale team to an undefeated season, although the last game of the season resulted a dramatic 29-29 tie at Harvard.

During his 3 years as a starter, the team posted records of 4-5, 8-1 and 8-0-1. In addition, Hill played some tight end and linebacker.

He was an outstanding college athlete. He was also a sprinter and jumper for the track team, and still holds the school record for the outdoor triple jump at the Ivy League institution.

Hill graduated from Yale University in 1969, finishing with 1,512 rushing yards, 858 receiving yards and 298 passing yards.

During his time at Yale, he obtained a degree in history, was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Phi chapter), where one of his fraternity brothers was President George W. Bush. He also was a member of the secret society, St. Elmo, which Bush's Attorney General, John Ashcroft, had joined five years earlier.

Professional career

Dallas Cowboys

Hill was drafted in the first round of the 1969 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys, becoming the first player from an Ivy League school to have this distinction. At the time this selection was widely questioned, because teams did not think they could find professional players at higher education colleges.

The Cowboys drafted him as an athlete, so he spent his first few days in training camp as a linebacker and tight end.

Hill got his chance at playing halfback in the second exhibition game, because the team was experiencing problems at running back during that training camp. Don Perkins, the fourth leading rusher in NFL history had just formally announced his retirement, Dan Reeves the starter at halfback was struggling after having off-season knee surgery and his backup Craig Baynham had bruised ribs.

He never relinquished his starting job and when the regular season started, even though he was a rookie, he became a dominant player in the league. Through the first nine games of the season, he was the best running back in the NFL with 807 rushing yards. However, he hurt his toe while rushing for a team record 150 yards in a 41-28 victory over the Washington Redskins in the ninth game of the season.

The team didn't know the extent of the injury, so he missed the next 2 games. When it was later revealed that it was broken, Hill played the last 2 games with a broken toe that required an injection before every practice and game.

He finished his first season with 942 rushing yards with a 4. 6 yard average and 8 touchdowns. he was also named NFL rookie of the year and earned Pro Bowl honors.

The Cowboys drafted Duane Thomas in the first round of the 1970 NFL Draft, because the team was not confident that Hill had recovered during the off season. He also had complications from an infected blister in the same foot that kept him in the hospital for more than a month.

Nine games into the 1970 season, he suffered a back injury and didn't play much the rest of the year, finishing with 577 rushing yards while averaging 3.8 yards per carry.

In 1971 against the New York Giants, he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament, that was initially diagnosed as a sprained knee. He missed six games and tried to play again in the NFC Championship game, but hurt his knee again scoring a touchdown.

In 1972 after the Cowboys traded Duane Thomas to the San Diego Chargers, he became the first running back in franchise history to surpass the 1,000 yard mark and proved he could still run the football. He finished with 1,045 yards and a 4.2 yard average and 6 touchdowns. He followed that up, breaking his own team record with 1,142 yards and six touchdowns during the 1973 season.

Hill played in Dallas for 6 seasons helping the Cowboys win 1 Super Bowl and 2 NFC Championship games. He had some superb years with the team, making four Pro Bowls (1969, 1972, 1973, 1974) in his six seasons and two All-Pro seasons (1969, 1973).

World Football League

In 1975, Hill signed with the Hawaiians in the World Football League (WFL) and played in three games before suffering a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee.

When the league closed, he returned to the NFL.

Washington Redskins

In 1976, he signed as a free agent with the Washington Redskins, but he could not recapture his previous playing level. In two seasons as a backup running back, he rushed for 558 yards and caught 25 passes, before being traded to the Cleveland Browns.

Cleveland Browns

He played four seasons with the Browns, playing mostly as a third-down running back, before retiring at the end of the 1981 season.

Hill played in the NFL for 12 seasons and amassed 6083 rushing yards and 42 touchdowns. He also had 2,861 receiving yards with 23 touchdowns.

Personal life

His wife Janet Hill, is a graduate of Wellesley College, where she shared a suite with Hillary Rodham Clinton. They are the parents of current NBA player Grant Hill. Hill was the 1969 NFL Rookie of the Year. Twenty six years later, his son Grant would win the NBA Rookie of the Year award which he shared with Jason Kidd.

Hill currently sits on the boards of several organizations, works as a corporate motivational speaker, and works for the Dallas Cowboys organization as a consultant who specializes in working with troubled players. Additionally, Mr. Hill is a consultant to the Cleveland Browns Football Club and Alexander & Associates, Inc., a Washington, D.C. corporate consulting firm. As a consultant with the Cleveland Browns, he helped form a group of Cleveland Browns' players to control and eliminate drug and alcohol related problems. Mr. Hill has written several articles on sports and academia for national publications, makes appearances at university campuses and business firms, throughout the United States. He addresses several topics including the problem of drugs and alcohol and the work needed in this area, and the important relationship of sports and academia. ^[2]

Calvin Hill Day Care Center in New Haven is named after him, in honor of Hill's work for children.^[3]

Notes