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.
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.
He starred on Navy’s plebe team where he was the favorite target for future Dallas Cowboys quarterback and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Roger Staubach.
After deciding to resign from the Naval Academy in 1962, Hill was recruited by future ESPN sports analyst Lee Corso, then an assistant coach at University of Maryland, to play for the Terps.
Corso had been encouraged by Maryland head coach Tom Nugent to try to find a black athlete to play for his team.
When Hill enrolled into Maryland in September 1962, he became the first African American to receive an athletic scholarship to play sports for a major university in the South.
Nugent received a death threat by telephone and after the game, Hill's teammates helped him get through a crush of hostile fans.
At the end of that season, the Terps played an away game against the Clemson University Tigers, who were led by coach Frank Howard.
After a short stint with the practice squad of the New York Jets,[3] Hill entered graduate school and launched his business career.
He engaged in a number of business ventures, including purchasing a major optical company in the city of Novosibirsk.
He took his company Northstar International to Central Siberia, where he formed a forestry joint venture with the government of the Republic of Buryatia.
Hill is Chairman of Kids Play USA Foundation, whose mission is to remove financial barriers from youth sports.