Mike Hill coming back to Jamestown as a Hall of Famer
· Yahoo Sports
Sep. 19—JAMESTOWN — A few months ago, Jamestown High School Class of 1976 grad Mike Hill got an exciting phone call from his longtime friend and old teammate, Jim Harty.
"Jim had nominated me for the Hall of Fame a few years back, so I filled out all of the paperwork and did all of the things you need to do," Hill said. "After I did all that, Jim told me that there was a five-year period where you are eligible to be inducted.
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"That was five years ago that I filled out the paperwork," he said. "So I figured, OK, that's not going to happen, so I put it out of my mind. Then I got a phone call from Jim, and he told me that our basketball team is going into the Hall of Fame. I was ecstatic."
Then Harty relayed the second part of his message.
"He said, 'I've got better news, you're going in as an individual,'" Hill said. "I said, 'What? I thought my five years were up'. Jim said I had been renominated and the Hall of Fame committee had decided to induct me. That really surprised me, but it was a fun surprise."
Hill is one of the four individuals set to be inducted into the Jamestown High School Hall of Fame on Sept. 25. Laura Kraft of the Class of 2011, Alexis (Lind) Gisvold, Class of 2013, Laurie Fox Batchelor, Class of 1995 are the other three former athletes set to be inducted. Hill and Harty will also be inducted with the 1976 Boys State Championship Basketball Team.
The 1976 grad played football, basketball and ran track and field.
Hill began his athletics career in third grade in Inkster, North Dakota. He and his family moved to Jamestown from Inkster when he was a sophomore in high school.
"You never know, sometimes small-town kids come into a bigger school and you don't know how you will be accepted, but they really accepted me in, and as a matter of fact, some of those guys on the team are my lifelong friends," Hill said. "I still hang out with them."
While he didn't have winning seasons in football his junior or senior years, Hill still racked up the accolades. During his senior football season, Hill was named the offensive lineman of the week three times. He received All-Conference and Sports Review All-State honors. He also earned a spot on the North-South Shrine Bowl roster. Hill went on to play football at Minot State University.
After football concluded, Hill was seen on the basketball court. Hill played for the Blue Jays varsity squad and legendary coach Jerry Meyer for two seasons.
"I didn't play right away on varsity but then about four or five games into the season Coach Meyer made some changes, and I was lucky enough to be one of the guys put into the lineup," Hill said.
The Jays went 16-11 in Hill's junior year. As the only returning starter from the 1974-75 squad, he was named the captain of the Blue Jays' 1975-76 team.
"We started out kind of slow, lost our first game to Shanley, but then we kind of clicked and went on a seven- or eight-game winning streak," Hill said of his senior basketball season. "During the year, we finished second in the conference, but right before the regional tournament, Pete Anderson broke his arm.
"He was our leading scorer and rebounder so we were kind of saying, 'Oh boy,'" he said.
Things worked out OK despite the season-ending injury.
The Blue Jays topped Valley City in the opening round of the tournament, then beat Wahpeton by way of a last-second shot by Mike Johnson to qualify for the 1976 state tournament. Jamestown dropped to Fargo North in the region championship game but entered the state tournament as the No. 2 seed.
At State, Hill and company cruised past Rugby, then squeaked out a win against Bismarck St. Mary's to land in the state championship game against Dickinson.
"(Dickinson) was the team that beat us out of the first round of the state tournament the year before," Hill said. "So that felt kind of good to beat them in the state championship.
"It was a great experience," he said. "My teammates were wonderful, I am still friends with a lot of those guys, and I wouldn't trade it for anything."
A state title in basketball wouldn't be the only one Hill would earn.
In track, Hill emerged as the 1975 and 1976 Eastern Dakota Conference and Southeast Regional javelin champion. In his junior year, he placed third in javelin at the state meet while he won the event his senior year. In 1975 and 1976, Hill was named All-Conference and All-State and was a nominee for the JHS Jerry Knoble Award in his senior year.
"There was a lot of practice that went into my career," Hill said. "You have to be willing to be coached. When you are a young person, you don't know everything, but if you listen to your coaches and do what they are asking you to do, it makes it a lot easier. I found that out.
"I was really blessed to have good coaches, and that was important," he said. "They were good examples, maybe former athletes themselves, so they kind of knew what we were going through and all that kind of stuff."
Hill will be traveling to Jamestown for the homecoming festivities on Thursday, Sept. 24.
He and the other Hall of Fame inductees will be honored at a dinner set to be held at the Jamestown Civic Center at 7 p.m. on Thursday. The inductees will be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame on Friday, Sept. 25 and will be introduced to the crowd at halftime of the homecoming football game.
"It's really special that I also get to be inducted with my team," Hill said. "When Jim told me that, that was just awesome. Being able to see all of those guys will be awesome ... it can't get much better than that."