Washington Post sports reporter Kathy Orton profiled Edward Hill, Jr., longtime Howard SID, in a feature on Sept. 17. Hill was profiled for his dedication to athletic PR and for mentoring young professionals as the SID and also in his role as adjunct professor - as well as for his impressive streak of attending every Howard football game since 1984.
In 2007, Hill received CoSIDA's Bob Kenworthy Community Service Award which is presented annually to a member for civic involvement and accomplishments outside of the sports information office.
(Photo courtesy of washingtonpost.com)
Howard's Hill Is a Stalwart in the Press Boxby Kathy Orton,
The Washington PostSept. 17, 2009
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When Howard plays Florida A&M on Thursday night in a nationally televised game, Ed Hill will hover in the press box making sure reporters' needs are met, just as he has the previous 273 games.
Hill, who has served as the Bison's sports information director since 1984, hasn't missed a football game during his tenure. Only three active sports information directors have worked more games consecutively than Hill.
"A lot of it is just good health," Hill said. "I really enjoy doing what I do. You have your peaks and your valleys, but I enjoy this."
Hill, 59, grew up in Washington, attended Cardozo High School and graduated from the University of the District of Columbia. He was working at a newspaper in Winston-Salem, N.C., in 1983 when Ricky Clemons, then Howard's sports information director, asked him to become his assistant. When Clemons left to work at the 1984 Olympics, Hill became the interim SID. He then took over the job permanently in March 1986.
"Initially, I didn't really think about public relations, sports information," Hill said. "I was just more into sports because I liked that kind of thing. . . . I like the whole responsibility, dealing with the student athletes, dealing with the coaches. I sort of fell into that: 'Oh, I like this. This is what I want to do.' I never even thought about it after that. It just flowed in that direction."
Since he arrived on campus, Hill has outlasted four head football coaches and has watched 43 Bison players reach the NFL. He has been caught up in the excitement of a 10-game winning streak and suffered through the agony of a 10-game losing streak. He was there in 1993 when Howard won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championship.
And he was there in 1987 when Howard and Bethune-Cookman played a nearly five-hour game in which the teams combined for a division I-AA record 1,418 yards of total offense, a game the Bison eventually won, 58-51.
Hill also has endured several losing seasons. Last season, the Bison won only one game.
"When I first started out, I would take [the losses] personally," Hill said. "I felt somehow it makes my job easier if we win, if we're successful. But I remember in 1994 we lost 10 straight games. . . .Steve Wilson, then coach at Howard, he said to me during that period, I'll never forget it, he said, 'It's times like this that you learn a lot about yourself.' I stopped taking the losses and the lack of success personally and kept them in the proper perspective. There will be winning seasons. There will be losing seasons. Either way, you do your job."
The closest Hill came to breaking his streak came in November 2001, two months after the Sept. 11
attacks. He was in Atlanta for a basketball tournament and needed to go to Delaware for the final football game of the season. A suspicious bag forced the airport to close for several hours, delaying flights. Determined not to miss the game, Hill caught a late train to Washington. Because there weren't enough seats on the train, he stood the entire trip. As soon as he arrived in Washington, he hopped in his car and drove to Delaware, making kickoff by 25 minutes.
"He has done a tremendous job under difficult circumstances, the obstacles that he's had to overcome," said Glenn Harris, a longtime sports talk show host for NewsChannel 8 and a member of the Howard Athletics Hall of Fame. "I think he's a soldier. He has not compromised his integrity. He does his job. I commend him for it."
In addition to his work as the sports information director, Hill also is an adjunct professor at Howard, teaching a class on sports and the media. Several of his students have gone on to work at major media outlets including ESPN,
Sports Illustrated and
The Washington Post.
"I love this place," Hill said. "It's allowed me to do a lot of things I probably wouldn't be able to do at other places."
Hill eagerly approaches each season, never tiring of compiling stats, writing press releases and arranging interviews between players and reporters.
"I get excited when we have games and the season starts," Hill said. "Setting up for game operations, that's fun. Somebody asked me, 'When are you going to retire?' I said, 'Well, when I'm not having fun anymore.' "