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The life and legacy of former head football coach Robert “Bob” Hill, 81, was celebrated at First New Hope Baptist Church on Thursday morning. He passed away May 17, 2016.
A congregation of family members, friends, former teammates and athletes recounted stories from Hill’s life, heaping praise on the man known during his JSU coaching days as “Blood Thirsty Bob.”
“You were not going to get off the practice field unless someone bled,” said Eddie Payton, JSU’s golf coach and former Tigers football player. “He was a tough man and his methods, although extreme, worked. And, if it were not for him, Walter and myself would not have gone on to have the careers we had.”
Hill was named Jackson State’s head football coach in 1971. During his tenure at the helm of the Tigers football program, he posted a 40-12-1 record and won three SWAC Championships (1972, 1973 and 1975). He also won SWAC and Pittsburgh Courier “Coach of the Year” awards during his career. As the head coach, Hill found and cultivated some of the greatest football players to ever don a helmet, shoulder pads and cleats.
His coaching methods produced a pair of Pro Football Hall of Fame members in Walter Payton and Jackie Slater, as well as Harold Jackson, Robert Brazile, Don Reese, Roscoe Word, Emanuel Zanders and Rickey Young.
“If it were not for this man, I don’t know where I would have been,” former JSU football player and head football coach Harold Jackson said. “I met Bob Hill when I was 15 years old, back in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and meeting him was one of the best things that could have ever happened to me. He believed in me when I was just a 140-pound kid. Meeting him led me to getting a college degree in three years, a 16-year NFL career and a 10-year coaching career in the pros.”
Before returning to JSU, Hill was a highly successful high school coach. During his four-year career (two years at Magee and two at Rowan), he amassed a 40-1-1 record. At Rowan, where he coached Harold Jackson, he won a pair of Big Eight Championships and posted a perfect 22-0 record.
Hill joined JSU’s coaching staff in 1963, where he would go on to serve as an assistant coach under former roommate and teammate Rod Paige (a former U.S. Secretary of Education). He was also once the head baseball coach and led the team to the NAIA playoffs. After leaving JSU, Hill became a coach for the New Orleans Saints.
“You heard some wonderful experiences here today. Bob Hill was a special human being. All the people you see here today have been touched by that man,” said Paige, a former U.S. Secretary of Education and JSU head football coach. “They learned from him, and Bob will live throughout these peoples’ lives and throughout my life.”
Hill played collegiate football at JSU, where he was an All-Midwestern Athletic Back for three consecutive years. He was the first Tiger to be drafted and sign a professional football contract when he joined the Baltimore Colts in 1956. He later joined the Canadian Football League with Toronto.
After completing his professional football career, he returned to Mississippi and served as an assistant football coach at Mississippi Valley State. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1958 and his master’s degree in 1968, both from JSU.
Survivors include a daughter, Rosalind Elizabeth Hill; a brother; sisters; and a host of family and friends.
