Darryl Hill (American football)

Darryl Andre Hill (born October 21, 1943 in Washington, D.C.) is an athlete and businessman; in 1963 he started with the University of Maryland football team as the first African-American football player in any of the southern athletic conferences composed of formerly segregated white institutions. (In that era, Maryland competed in the Atlantic Coast Conference, which at the time consisted only of such institutions.) The only black player on the team until his senior year, Hill set two records that still stand: total yards receiving, and most passes caught in a single game.

After college and graduate school, Hill was an early advocate of minority business enterprise. He became a ground-breaking businessman, with an entrepreneurial range that has included fine restaurants and green energy companies. In the 1990s, he also established business relations in Russia and China.

Darryl Hill was the older of two children born to Kermit and Palestine Hill in Washington, D.C.. His family had a history as entrepreneurs. His father, Kermit, owned and operated Hill’s Transfer Company, which was one of the nation’s largest black-owned commercial trucking firms in the 1950s and 1960s. Both grandfathers were African American business owners. His great-grandfather, a Native American, was an entrepreneur and the first person of color to be hired by the Washington, D.C. Fire Department.

Hill attended public and parochial grade schools in D.C. and entered Jesuit Gonzaga College High School on an academic scholarship; he earned it by a competitive entrance examination. While at Gonzaga, he became the first African American to play football for the school, and in 1959 he led his team to the City Championship. In his senior year, Hill was named first team All DC Metropolitan in football. In track, he was Catholic League champion and record holder in the 400 yard dash and the long jump.

...
Wikipedia