Alton Hill was a 6-foot-6 center who made his mark at Atlantic Christian College and beyond. He averaged 12.5 points and 6.5 rebounds over four years while playing basketball with the Bulldogs and was a track star as well. He was named Kiwanis Male Athlete of the Year after his sophomore and junior seasons.
Following his college graduation in 1967, Hill moved to Virginia Beach, where he began a teaching/coaching career that spanned 32 years until his retirement in 1999. He lives in his hometown of Beaufort, N.C., with his wife Debra. They have two children: Austin, who was a decathlete at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Ashley, who attended Radford.
Hill was a star basketball player for the legendary Beaufort High School Seadogs, playing the post as they won a national record 91 straight games on their way to three straight NCHSAA state championships. Seven players off those teams, coached by Thomas H. McQuaid, went on to play college basketball, including Hill and his buddies Butch, Pud and Ray Hassell.
At ACC, Hill played basketball for Jack McComas the first two seasons and Ira Norfolk the last two. He is joining former teammates Bobby Gilmore, Larry Jones, Clyde Stallsmith, Rocky Covington, and Tom Parham in the Barton Hall.
Hill’s claim to fame occurred his senior season, when he tore his ACL and was expected to miss the rest of the season.
Shortly thereafter, the Bulldogs were engaged in a wild, foul-plagued game with Lenoir-Rhyne College in Wilson Gym. A courageous Hill, dragging his leg around, was just one of two players left on the floor for ACC when they lost by just a few points in double overtime (LR had five guys on the floor).
Hill, an excellent defender, matched up with much bigger adversaries every game, including 6-9, 245-pound Guilford star Bob Kauffman.
An impressive tryout in the spring of his freshman year landed Hill on the school track team. He ran for coaches Jim Pfohl and Lenny Riddle. At one time, he held the school records in six events: 220 hurdles, 330 hurdles, 440 hurdles, 880, 440 relay and the mile relay. His school record of 2:02.2 in the 880 still stood when the program was discontinued. In the 1967 Carolinas Conference Championships at Appalachian State, Hill won both the 440 and 880 titles. Parham recalled, “After he finished the second race, he collapsed, puked and said, ‘I love it.’ ”
Hill spent one year at an elementary school in Virginia Beach after leaving ACC, then coached varsity boys basketball and track for 20 years at First Colonial High School. He coached four-time high school All-American Guy Morgan, who went on to star at Wake Forest and then play with the Indiana Pacers. Hill finished his full-time coaching and teaching career with an 11-year stint at Green Run High School in Virginia Beach, where he coached boys’ basketball and girls’ tennis.
He sent numerous players to Barton over the years, including Speedy Gainer, who scored 2,000-plus points in his Barton basketball career.
