King Hill was the backup QB and punter for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1961 to 1968. He passed away yesterday at age 75 from complications due to cancer.
I was just a small kid when I watched him play. I remember vividly though that he backed up Sonny Jurgensen and Norm Snead in those days, and if King Hill was in the game at QB it was generally not a good sign. It meant either we were losing badly or Sonny or Norm were hurt. My father invented a rubber brick called the “King Hill” brick. Any time Hill threw an interception, Dad tossed the rubber brick at the Philco.
King Hill (6-3, 212, Rice University) was the NFL’s #1 Draft pick in 1958 (by the Chicago Cardinals, who moved to St. Louis in 1960)…
I also remember King Hill was a prety good punter. In fact, he was one of the last of the 3-way players coming out of the NCAA in 1958, where at Rice he not only quarterbacked the team and did the punting, but also played in the defensive secondary.
I also remember King Hill’s greatest game as an Eagle. It was a 35-27 loss to the Giants on October 17, 1965, in a game televised from New York on CBS. Hill was magnificent in defeat. He was filling in for the injured Norm Snead. The Giants had a ferocious defense back then and a great QB of their own in Y.A. Tittle. King Hill took everything the Giants gave him, including a fierce beating in the pocket. He kept the Eagles in the game until the end. He ended up throwing for 321 yards on 23-of-41 attempts, with 3 TD’s and 4 INT’s.
That was one game where Dad kept the rubber brick in his pocket. It was a valiant performance by King Hill.
Looking back at old film of Hill, he was a very accurate passer on short routes…but his intermediate and long passes seemed to float a bit, which explains his not-so-great INT numbers.
He threw for 5,553 yards with 71 INT’s against his 37 TD’s over a 12-year career. It graded out to a 49.3 QB rating, which is not very shiny.
But he brought that punting game to the mix, which in the days of smaller rosters was a bonus for the Eagles. And Hill averaged over 40 yards a punt for most of his NFL career.
After he retired as an active player in 1971, Hill went back to Houston, Texas, where he eventually became the offensive coordinator for the Houston Oilers under Bum Phillips. He also coached under Phillips when Bum moved on to the New Orleans Saints.
Bum Phillips is still very much alive and called it “a sad day” when he learned of Hill’s passing. “He was the most polite and gentle man,” said Phillips to the Houston Chronicle yesterday. “He was different from anybody I ever worked with…And on the football field, he may have been polite, but he was direct—when he said something, you knew he meant it.”
Losing King Hill now seems premature to me. Selfishly, I must wave goodbye to another piece of my childhood. But I’m just beginning to learn more about King Hill, the player and the man, and the wild era of the ’60’s Eagles. I still have his football card…
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Checking up on our friend Dave Stoessel, whose Eagles Addict column is still grinding away and doing great after he launched the blog last year. If you’re looking for some entertaining commentary during the dry spells of the NFL season, give Dave a visit…
Dave answers a question that many of us forget to ask: What does the term “rookies and selected veterans” really mean when we refer to the Eagles who must report to camp on July 22, three days ahead of the rest of the team?
The closest thing Dave could find to a real answer as to who makes up the list of selected veterans is as follows: Quarterbacks and injured players.
That’s basically it.
Dave breaks down the entire Eagles roster for who actually qualifies as “injured” or “rehabbing from injury” to be reporting to Lehigh this coming weekend ahead of the non-selected veterans. Give him a look at http://www.eaglesaddict.com. This particular column was also picked up by Bleacher Report, so you might see it there. Great work by Dave Stoessel, whom we can claim as one of our alumni…
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