[1] His father, Richard, Sr. was a diesel mechanic and his mother Carolyn, was a medical tech at a blood bank.
[4] Following his senior season, then-head coach Mack Brown and his staff voted Hightower the D. Harold Byrd Leadership Award winner.
[7] Hightower bounced between the San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears between 2015 and 2016 as an assistant special teams coach.
He stayed in San Francisco for five years, helping them make the playoffs twice including a trip to Super Bowl LIV.
[7] In 2023, Hightower was the head coach of the East team in the 2024 East-West Shrine game, which was won by the West.