Harlon Hill
Hill on a 1955 Bowman football card
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| No. 87, 82 | |||||||||
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| Position: | Wide receiver | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Date of birth: | May 4, 1932 | ||||||||
| Place of birth: | Killen, Alabama | ||||||||
| Date of death: | March 21, 2013 (aged 80) | ||||||||
| Place of death: | Florence, Alabama | ||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 199 lb (90 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | Rogersville (AL) Lauderdale | ||||||||
| College: | North Alabama | ||||||||
| NFL Draft: | 1954 / Round: 15 / Pick: 174 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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| Player stats at PFR | |||||||||
| Receptions: | 233 |
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| Receiving yards: | 4,717 |
| Touchdowns: | 40 |
| Player stats at NFL.com | |
Harlon Junius Hill (May 4, 1932 – March 21, 2013) was an American football player becoming a coach and educator. Hill played a total of nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Chicago Bears, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Detroit Lions. He was the NFL Rookie of the Year in 1954 and winner of the Jim Thorpe Trophy as the NFL Player of the Year in 1955. The Harlon Hill Trophy, named in his honor, is awarded annually to the nation's best NCAA Division II football player.
Hill was born in Killen, Alabama. Following graduation from Lauderdale County High School in nearby Rogersville in 1949, he attended Florence State Teachers College, now known as the University of North Alabama. Football was just making its return to Florence State in 1949 after several years absence due to low male enrollment, and Hill was a four-year letterman on the team while also earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Education. He played both offense and defense for the team, but it was his offensive efforts that saw him named an NAIA All-American player in his senior year, 1953. As with many college teams of the era, Florence State was a run-based offense and threw the ball sparingly. However, Hill made the most of his chances with 19 of his 54 career catches going for touchdowns. In his 1977 biography Victory after the Game, Hill related his surprise at being selected in the 15th round of the 1954 NFL draft by the Chicago Bears, remaining unaware of it until approached with the news by a Florence State professor on campus: '"I had no idea I had been `discovered.' I really did not know much about the National Football League...I did not know what to think, but after I found out what it was all about, naturally I was elated." Hill went on to say he owed the discovery to a rival school. A coach for Jacksonville State University had observed Hill's play over four seasons and mentioned him to a Bears scout.
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