Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 18, 1995 TAG: 9508180052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
With a unique curiosity and concrete commitment, Hill keeps score deeper than the numbers. He studies more than box scores.
As a Yale student in the '60s, he saw what sports success could do for a city. Much of what Hill views 30 years later isn't much different, even if the money is.
As the guest speaker Thursday at Radford University's athletic association banquet and inaugural Hall of Fame induction, he told a crowd of more than 600 that sports isn't just part of society.
The former NFL running back said sports is crucial to society.
``The Greeks canceled wars when they held the Olympics,'' said Hill, 48, before his talk. ``There's a message there. ... We shouldn't minimize sports. We should recognize it, and recognize its place.''
Hill makes a study of studies, like the one that was reported this week about what heading a soccer ball repeatedly can do to a person's brain.
``I read that, and I wondered what banging your head into Dick Butkus over and over would do,'' said the first 1,000-yard rusher in Dallas Cowboys history.
He also is intrigued by a University of Michigan study that said people ``not only felt better about themselves when their sports teams won, but that success also had a direct correlation to their sense of their ability to do a job.''
Hill recalled the end of his NFL career in Cleveland, when the city was struggling but a Browns victory would light up faces on the sidewalks two days later. He sees a similar reaction now when he drives one of his cars bearing a Duke sticker.
``People will ride by and give me a thumbs-up,'' he said. ``Seeing Duke [where basketball success includes the stardom of his alumnus son, Grant Hill,] makes them feel good.''
In his hometown, Baltimore, Hill has seen what Camden Yards has meant to the city.
``You can say there are other things that could have been done that would have been more important, but consider two things,'' he said. ``First, everybody there takes pride in the stadium. It also creates an economy that wouldn't be there.''
Hill recalled his days at Yale, where what might be called an Ivy League attitude was prevalent. Football success not only overcame that, it wrapped its arms around the residents of New Haven, Conn., too.
``I come from a university where there's the tendency to try to minimize, or rationalize or explain away sport,'' Hill said. ``It was looked at second, behind music, or art, or academics.
``Well, sports is much more than that. Sports has a unique ability to get people involved, to give them a sense of belonging. In this day and age, that's important.''
Hill referred to the announced decision by Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., not to run for re-election in 1996. The Rhodes scholar and former New York Knicks star says the political process and government in this nation are broken.
``There is a lot of dysfunction in society,'' said Hill, whose thoughtfulness and candor would be a plus in politics. ``People say it's not like it was, and it isn't. We need more of a oneness to make people feel we're on the same team. Instead, too many things are polarized.
``As Bill Bradley said, it's possible to disagree and not be disagreeable. If you see what's being said, there's a lot of meanness there and people are getting tired of it. The Democrats do it. The Republicans do it. And then they blame each other.''
Hill sees some of the same woes in the games he loves, such as the labor impasses that have tainted all major-league sports.
``Pro sports have serious problems, structural problems,'' Hill said. ``You see it in basketball now. You have two sides pulling at the goose that laid the golden egg, and the fabric of the goose will only stretch so far.
``People are tired of all of this in politics. Fans are tired of it in sports, too.''
by CNB