Calvin Hill

Calvin G. Hill (born January 2, 1947) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL).

He played for the Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins, and Cleveland Browns.

He also played a season with The Hawaiians of the World Football League (WFL).

Hill was born on January 2, 1947, in Baltimore, Maryland.

He was awarded a scholarship to attend the Riverdale Country School in The Bronx, New York before attending ninth grade.

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 and other Ivy Preparatory School League opponents in the metropolitan New York City-area.

He was introduced to organized football at Riverdale, where he was named the starting quarterback as a sophomore.

From 1963 to 1965 he ran the T formation in a program that was undefeated for eight seasons, 1958 through 1965, and was led by head coach Frank Bertino.

Hill was a highly touted high school football talent and an honors student at the secondary school.

Hill acknowledged a desire to play in a stadium with a large seating capacity, and was impressed by the large crowd, more than 70,000, watching Yale defeat Dartmouth 24–15 at the Yale Bowl during a visit, October 31, 1964.

The second day of practices at Yale, the coaching staff shifted Hill 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.

Hill and Dowling had incomparable on-field chemistry.

Dowling could pass, and Hill could run, and both could catch passes.

Hill, who threw six halfback option passes for touchdowns at Yale, likened Dowling's athletic virtuosity to John Coltrane's musicality.

He was the 1967 and 1968 long jump and triple jump Ivy League Heptagonal Outdoor Track & Field Champion.

Hill completed his three-year varsity collegiate athletic career with 2527 all-purpose yards, 1,512 rushing yards from the line of scrimmage, 858 receiving yards, and 298 passing yards.

Hill and Dowling led the 1968 Yale team to an undefeated season, ending its schedule in a famed 29-29 tie at Harvard.

During his three years as a starter, the Bulldogs posted records respectively of 4–5, 8-1 and 8-0-1.

Hill also played tight end or linebacker in some games.

He was a subject, along with Dowling, of Garry Trudeau's "Bull Tales" cartoons in the Yale Daily News.

"Bull Tales" was the forerunner of the Pulitzer Prize winning Doonesbury.

Hill was a sprinter and jumper for the Yale track team.

He holds the school record for the outdoor triple jump.

Hill was named to the Pro Bowl four times (1969, 1972, 1973, and 1974).

Hill graduated with the Yale College Class of 1969.

At Yale, he joined Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

Hill was selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the first round (24th overall) of the 1969 NFL draft.

At the time this selection was widely questioned, because teams did not think they could find professional players at elite colleges.

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

He 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.

Hill never relinquished the 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.

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.

Yale University conferred Hill with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at its 2016 commencement.

"You are a Yale legend" is the opening sentence of the citation honoring Hill.