[2][3] His father James routinely worked 14-hour days as a production manager at Arkadelphia Beverage Company in the daytime and janitor in the nighttime.
[1][3] His mother Mary was a high school registrar and volunteered with local children and college students at her church.
[3][6] After graduating from Ouachita Baptist University, Hill returned to Arkadelphia High School in 1987 as an assistant football coach.
In the spring of 1990, Hill returned to Northwestern State University and served as quarterbacks and wide receivers coach for that term.
While completing his master's degree at Northwestern State, Hill continued to be a volunteer assistant coach for Arkansas in 1990 and 1991.
[5] Immediately after losing the season opener to Division I-AA The Citadel, Arkansas athletic director Frank Broyles fired head coach Jack Crowe.
Fellow assistant coach Houston Nutt reflected on that time in the season: "The thing that was so tough that year was the uncertainty you felt every single day.
[12] In December 2000, Hill was hired as the head coach for the San Jose State University Spartans football team.
[17] San Jose State improved to 6–7 in 2002 albeit one win short of bowl eligibility, in a season with 9 of the 13 games on the road.
[19] By October 5, San Jose State reached a 4–2 record,[18] including a win over defending Big Ten champion Illinois.
[22] In March 2003, Hill achieved a two-year effort to schedule a season opener against Grambling State, a historically black university in Louisiana.
The game was dubbed the Dr. Martin Luther King Literacy Classic, which shares a namesake with the new library to be opened on the San Jose State campus.
With 20 seconds left and the Spartans at the Hawaii 5, the San Jose State offensive coordinator called a time-consuming screen pass to tight end Courtney Anderson, who was tackled at the one-yard line.
San Jose State hosted events leading up to this game, including a discussion about education with Fitz Hill and Bill Cosby.
[16] The season included a 70–63 victory over Rice in which the total score broke an NCAA record for combined points in a non-overtime game.
[6][36] From 2004 to 2006, he was a visiting scholar and research associate at the University of Central Florida's DeVos Sport Business Management Program.
[37] While raising support for the Delta Classic, Hill contacted Arkansas Baptist College (ABC) to speak with their president and found out they, at the time, did not have one.
[13] He married fellow Ouachita Baptist classmate, Cynthia Hill; she was born in Italy to an American military serviceman and an Italian mother.