When most basketball fans hear think Winston-Salem State basketball, two names come to mind: Earl Monroe and Big House Gaines. And rightfully so, as both men were key components of the 1967 squad that went on to capture the school’s first, and only, NCAA basketball championship.
Lost in the shuffle, ”’however, is former WSSU (then called Winston-Salem Teachers College) superstar Cleo Hill. The 6-foot, 1-inch guard came down from Newark, New Jersey to Winston-Salem with little fan-fare and left with almost every scoring record imaginable, many of which were later broken by Monroe.
“He could shoot any type of shot,” said Gaines in his autobiography, “They Call Me Big House.”
Hill scored 2,488 points in his career, and in 1961 he became the first player from an HBCU to be drafted in the first round when he was selected eighth overall by the St. Louis Hawks.
At the time, black players in general and black stars in particular, were still rather new. Some of Hill’s teammates were not thrilled that a hot shot young player was coming in to take their shine and basically froze-him(would not pass him the ball) out to keep him from doing what he did best, score. The coach who was in Hill’s corner was fired and he was released from the team. Hill never played another game in the NBA. He went onto become a successful head coach at Essex Junior College in New Jersey.
“Had Cleo Hill been given a fair chance to compete in the NBA when he broke into the pro game in 1961, he may have become the first Michael Jordan,” said Gaines in his book.
More than 45 years after Hill played his last game for the Rams, his No. 14 jersey still has not been retired. In fact, the only jersey number in school history to have been retired was Monroe’s No. 10. This is unacceptable, and some thing needs to be done about it, now.
You only need to look across town to find a school that knows how to honor its great athletes. When Wake Forest plays its home games in the Lawrence Joel Colesium, huge banners displaying the images of former Demon Deacon greats like Len Chappell, Muggsy Bouges, and Tim Duncan.
Great players like Hill, Carlos Terry, Jack DeFares and others deserve recognition in some shape or fashion. Last year’s Celebration of Champions banquet was nice, but more needs to be done.
Hill has already been railroaded by the NBA; he deserves better from his alma mater.