Gary Hill became one of OCU’s eight NCAA all-Americans in 1963. Along with his coach Abe Lemons, Hill was part of the inaugural class of the OCU athletic hall of fame in 1979.
Other members of that class were Koper, Farrell Craig, Paul Hansen, Hub Reed and Arnold Short. Hill played for OCU from 1959-63.
Hill scored 21.1 points a game as a senior in 1962-63. OCU’s team was billed as the tallest in college basketball to that point with an average height of 6-foot-7 and one fifth. Hill, 6-4, was known as an outstanding ball handler, great defensive player and a high-percentage shooter. He was named all-American by the Helms Foundation.
In 1962-63, OCU went 19-10 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years, finishing fourth in the NCAA Midwest Regional in Lawrence, Kan. The Chiefs had a 13-game win streak. Hill scored nine of his team’s final 11 points against in a 70-67 win over Colorado State in the NCAA Tournament at Lubbock, Texas.
As a junior, Hill scored 17.4 points a game, becoming one of four on that team who averaged double figures in points. Senior Larry Jones was OCU’s leading scorer at 19.7 points a game, sophomore Bud Koper added 15.9 points a game and senior Eugene Tsoodle averaged 14 points a game in 1961-62. That was the first time in program history an OCU team featured four double-digit scorers for the season. The 1961-62 Chiefs averaged 82.1 points a game, the most in a season by any college basketball team in Oklahoma to that point.
Hill played in the East-West game in Lexington, Ky., and scored a game-high 18 points. He was also an alternate on the Pan-American team.
The San Francisco Warriors selected Hill in the second round of the 1963 draft. Hill was on the 1963-64 Warriors who finished first in the Western Division and featured Wilt Chamberlain. Hill spent two years playing in the NBA for the Warriors and the Baltimore Bullets.
Hill spent 22 years as director of the Firstep men’s alcohol and drug treatment program in Oklahoma City. He coached basketball at Custer City, Okla.
Hill came from Rocky, Okla., where Bud, Henry and Ron Koper, Jay and Dennis Harris and Steve Fite came from before starring at OCU. They became known as the Rocky Rockets. Hill scored 2,739 points and averaged 24.5 points, setting state records and becoming an all-American during his high-school career.
