Jim Hilyer (July 1, 1935 – January 26, 2022
) was an
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
coach. He was the first head football coach at
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), serving from 1991 to 1994 and compiling a record of 27–12–2. Hilyer played
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
at
Stetson University, where he was a four-year
letterwinner at
offensive guard
Offensive may refer to:
* Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative
* Offensive (military), an attack
* Offensive language
** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...
and
linebacker
Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...
.
Coaching career
Hilyer's coaching career began at
Mainland High School
Mainland High School is a public high school located in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. It is attended by 1,979 students of grades nine through twelve. The mascot is a Buccaneer and strongly resembles the old logo of the Tampa Bay Buccane ...
in
Daytona Beach, Florida
Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal Resort town, resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County, Florida, Volusia County near the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic coastline, its population ...
(1957–1963), where he coached football and track and also played for the Orlando Thunderbirds of the
Continental Football League
The Continental Football League (COFL) was a professional American football minor league that operated in North America from 1965 through 1969. It was established following the collapse of the original United Football League, and hoped to beco ...
during this period from 1958 to 1960. He then joined the staff at
Mississippi State University
Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Unive ...
as an assistant in 1963 and stayed through 1967. He was an assistant coach at
Auburn University
Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...
from 1968 through 1973 before joining
George Allen and the
Washington Redskins
The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...
staff in 1974.
Hilyer returned to Auburn from 1977 to 1981, and then he joined the staff of the
Birmingham Stallions of the
United States Football League
The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...
in 1982.
UAB
In 1985, Hilyer became the strength and conditioning coach at UAB, and was also an assistant professor in the School of Medicine and an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Health Education and Physical Education. In 1989, he became the coach of the UAB club football team and had a record of 3–10 during his two years at the club level. On March 13, 1991, Hilyer was named the first head coach at UAB for the inaugural 1991 season.
In four seasons from 1991 to 1994 as head coach at UAB, he coached the Blazers to a record of 27–12–2.
Head coaching record
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hilyer, Jim
Living people
1935 births
American football offensive guards
American football linebackers
American strength and conditioning coaches
Auburn Tigers football coaches
Mississippi State Bulldogs football coaches
Stetson Hatters football players
UAB Blazers football coaches
United States Football League coaches
Washington Redskins coaches
High school football coaches in Florida
High school track and field coaches in the United States