Jerry Hill (born October 12, 1939) is a former

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

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 wi ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Th ...

for the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse bree ...

. He is a native of Lingle, Wyoming.

University of Wyoming

Born and raised in southeastern Wyoming, Hill 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 o ...

at the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

in Laramie under head coach

Bob Devaney Robert Simon Devaney (April 13, 1915 – May 9, 1997) was a college football coach. He served as the head coach at the University of Wyoming from 1957 to 1961 and at the University of Nebraska from 1962 to 1972, compiling a career record of . ...

. He was an All-

Skyline Conference The Skyline Conference is a college athletic conference based in the New York City area that competes in the NCAA's Division III. The league was originally chartered on May 16, 1989, as a men's basketball conference and now sponsors 17 sports (n ...

running back in

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of ...

and

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Jan ...

, and was part of the

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

team that won the

Sun Bowl The Sun Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played since 1935 in the southwestern United States at El Paso, Texas. Along with the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl, it is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. ...

in his sophomore season. Hill was selected as Wyoming football's Player of the 20th Century in 1992. He finished his collegiate career with 1,374 rushing yards on 288 carries. He was named as an Honorable Mention All-American in

and

Baltimore Colts

Selected in the

third round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * H ...

(35th overall) of the

1961 NFL Draft The 1961 National Football League draft took place at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia on December 27–28, 1960. The league would later hold an expansion draft for the Minnesota Vikings expansion franchise. This draft was also the first regul ...

by the

he played with them through

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

, including

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

s III and V. Hill was primarily used as a blocking back for other rushers such as Lenny Moore and Tom Matte and protecting John Unitas from blitzing linebackers. Hill's best season was in 1965 when he led the team in rushing with 516 yards. National Brewing Company introduced Colt 45

malt liquor Malt liquor is a type of mass market beer with high alcohol content, most closely associated with North America. Legally, it often includes any alcoholic beverage with 5% or more alcohol by volume made with malted barley. In common usage, it refe ...

in 1963. Listed on the Pabst (the current owners of the beverage) website as a "Fun Fact," Colt 45 was named after running back #45 Jerry Hill of the 1963 Baltimore Colts and not the .45 caliber handgun ammunition round.

Awards and honors

*All Skyline Conference Running Back (1959, 1960) *Inducted into Wyoming Cowboys Hall of Fame, October 29, 1993. *Member of 1958 Sun Bowl Champions *Member of 1968 NFL Champions *Member of

Super Bowl V Super Bowl V was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Baltimore Colts and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Dallas Cowboys to determine the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

Champions *Wyoming Football Player of the 20th Century *Namesake of the Colt 45 malt liquor

References

External links

University of Wyoming Athletics Hall of Fame
– Jerry Hill * 1939 births Living people People from Torrington, Wyoming People from Lingle, Wyoming Players of American football from Wyoming American football running backs Wyoming Cowboys football players Baltimore Colts players {{Runningback-1930s-stub