Kenny W. Hill was born on July 25, 1958 in Oak Grove. He graduated from and played football at Oak Grove High School. He is one of two Oak Grove Tigers to play in the NFL. (The other being Jack Torrance, who played for the Chicago Bears.)

• He played college football at Yale University.
• Former Yale Bulldog, Kenny Hill, is the only Ivy Leaguer to win Super Bowls for two different teams -- the 1984 Raiders and the 1987 Giants.

• He was an 8th round pick by Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders in 1981.

• Wore #48 while he played in the NFL.

• He played on two Super Bowl winning teams: 1 for the Raiders in Super Bowl XXVIII and 1 for the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXI.

Players Who Have Won Super Bowls with More Than One Team

Herb Adderly, CB - Green Bay (I,II), Dallas (VI)
Matt Bahr, K - Pittsburgh (XIV), New York Giants (XXV)
Robert Bailey, CB - Dallas (XXX), Baltimore (XXXV)
Jim Burt, DT - New York Giants (XXI), San Francisco (XXIV)
Matt Cavanaugh, QB - San Francisco (XIX*), New York Giants (XXV*)
Bill Curry, C - Green Bay (I), Baltimore (V)
Billy Davis, WR - Dallas (XXX), Baltimore XXXV
Richard Dent, DE - Chicago (XX), San Francisco (XXIX)
Dedrick Dodge, S - San Francisco (XXIX*), Denver (XXXII)
Dave Duerson, S - Chicago (XX), New York Giants (XXV)
Marv Fleming, TE Green Bay (I,II), Miami (VII, VIII)
Andy Frederick, OT Dallas (XII), Chicago (XX)
Hubert Ginn, RB Miami (VII), Oakland (XI)
Forrest Gregg, OT Green Bay (I,II), Dallas (VI*)
Charles Haley, LB/DE - San Francisco (XXIII, XXIV), Dallas (XXVII, XXVIII)
Ted Hendricks, LB - Baltimore (V), Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders (XI, XV, XVIII)
Kenny Hill, S - Los Angeles Raiders (XXVIII), New York Giants (XXI)
Derek Loville, RB San Francisco (XXIX) Denver Broncos (XXXII, XXXIII)
Jim Mandich, TE - Miami (VII, VIII), Pittsburgh (XIII)
Charles Mann, DE - Washington (XXII, XXVI)
Wilbur Marshall, LB - Chicago (XX), Washington (XXVI)
Ed McCaffrey, WR - San Francisco (XXIX), Denver (XXXII, XXXIII)
Tim McKyer, CB - San Francisco (XXIII, XXIV), Denver (XXXII)
Jim McMahon, QB - Chicago (XX), Green Bay (XXXI*)
Matt Millen, LB - Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders (XV, XVIII), San Francisco (XXIV)
Earl Morrall, QB - Baltimore (III, V), Miami (VII, VIII)
Marcus Nash, WR - Denver (XXXIII), Baltimore (XXXV*)
Ken Norton, LB - Dallas (XXVII, XXVIII), San Francisco (XXIX)
Bart Oates, C - New York Giants (XXI, XXV), San Francisco (XXIX)
Elvis Patterson, CB - New York Giants (XXI), Dallas (XXVIII)
Preston Pearson, RB - Pittsburgh (IX), Dallas (XII)
Gloster Richardson, WR - Kansas City (IV), Dallas (VI*)
Bill Romanowski, LB - San Francisco (XXIII, XXIV), Denver (XXXII, XXX)
Jeff Rutledge, QB - New York Giants (XXI), Washington (XXVI)
Deion Sanders, CB - San Francisco (XXIX), Dallas (XXX)
Mark Schlereth, G - Washington (XXVI), Denver (XXXII, XXXIII)
Shannon Sharpe, TE - Denver (XXXII, XXXIII), Baltimore (XXXV)
David Stalls, DE/DT - Dallas (XII), Los Angeles Raiders (XVIII)
Harry Swayne, OT - Denver (XXXII, XXXIII), Baltimore (XXXV)
Adam Timmerman, G - Green Bay (XXXI), St. Louis (XXXIV)
Keith Traylor, DT - Denver (XXXII, XXXIII), New England (XXXIX)

*did not play

• Kenny played 9 seasons in the NFL. (L.A. Raiders-3, New York Giants-5, Kansas City Chiefs-1)

• Kenny signed a letter of intent to play football at LSU for Coach McClendon, but later decided to go to Yale.

1976 LSU Football Signing Class
HEAD COACH CHARLES MCCLENDON
L John Adams, DeRidder, La.
B Paul Ameen, Midewest City, Ok.
L John Ed Bradley, Opelousas, La.
L Sterling Brazile, Reserve, La.
B Rusty Brown, Houston, Texas
B Carlos Carson,W. Palm Beach, Fla.
B Jeff Corley, South Houston, Texas
B Steve Ensminger, Baton Rouge, La.
B Lou Ernst, New Orleans, La.
B Norman Glindmeyer, New Orleans, La.
L Willie Gunnels, Hahnville, La.
L Jerry Hill, Midwest City, Ok.
B Kenneth Hill, Oak Grove, La
B Leroid Jones, Baton Rouge, La.
B Leroyal Jones, Baton Rouge, La.
B Greg LaFleur,Ville Platte, La.
L Pat Lonergan, New Orleans, La.
L Sam McCage, Baytown, Texas
L Charles McDuff, Baton Rouge, La.
L Joey Peno,Vidor, Texas
B Barry Rubin, Monroe, La.
L Wilbur Stansberry, Baton Rouge, La.
L Eddie Stanton, Friendswood, Texas
L Craig Steuterman, Creve Coeur, Mo.
B Willie Teal, Texarkana, Texas
L Larry Willis, New Orleans, La.
L Terry Willis, New Orleans, La.
B Bart Wood, Mandeville, La.
B David Woodley, Shreveport, La.

AGGRESSION NECESSARY, HILL SAYS...

The plastic water bottle sat on the table in the news media interview room. The message taped to the one-quart bottle read:

''Kenny Hill Fine Relief Fund. All Contributions Accepted.''

At the start of the day, the two-day-old fund had reached $1.04, all in pennies. It received a stunning boost when Robbie Jones dropped in a $1 bill because, he said, ''I was involved.''

Behind the bottle, at the Giants' Super Bowl interview session today, sat Kenny Hill, the Giants' strong safety. He is bright enough to have earned a bachelor's degree from Yale in molecular biophysics. He is intense enough to have earned a reputation as one of pro football's hardest and most aggressive hitters.

Today, he acknowledged that Pete Rozelle, the National Football League commissioner, had fined him $5,000 for a series of rough plays involving Jerry Rice, the outstanding wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers. They happened during the Giants' 49-3 playoff victory Jan. 4.

Hill could have been suspended for Sunday's Super Bowl against the Denver Broncos in Pasadena, Calif. Even though he was not, he indicated he would appeal the fine because he considered it too severe.

Hill earns about $200,000 a year. Had he been suspended from the Super Bowl game, it would have cost him $18,000 if the Giants lost or $36,000 if they won. Fined in 1984

Hill was fined by the league once before, after a 1984 game against the Washington Redskins in which he was ejected for a late hit out of bounds. There was antagonism that day because the Redskins thought Hill had intentionally injured one of their players the year before when Hill was playing for the Los Angeles Raiders.

This time, said Hill, ''the league perceived I was out to get Mr. Rice.''

''I was just protecting my teammate,'' said Hill. ''For people who don't play this game, it's hard to imagine the emotions that are involved and how we're expected and required to be good sportsmen when we are engaged in an endeavor that is hostile and aggressive.''

The game officials never penalized Hill. However, Coach Bill Walsh of the 49ers sent videotapes of the game to league headquarters and cited several incidents between Hill and Rice. Series of Battles

Hill said the first incident came when Rice tried to block him and Hill hit him legally with an arm.

''After that,'' said Hill, ''I perceived he was intent on revenge on me.''

Later, said Hill, Rice tried to block him on the legs, which is legal though frowned upon because of potential injury.

''I asked him if he was trying to hurt me,'' said Hill. ''He made a comment that I perceived to be belligerent. You can't say it in a family newspaper.''

Their next confrontation came when Mark Collins of the Giants intercepted a pass, but just out of bounds. Hill said his job on an interception was to block a potential tackler, and he came from 20 yards away and hit Rice hard.

''I have to play aggressively,'' said Hill. ''I can't assume Mark is going out of bounds. I have to make the play because that's my job.''

Later, said Hill, Rice put a crackback block on Jones, a Giants linebacker. Such a block is legal above the waist, illegal below.

''I hit him,'' said Hill, ''because I perceived he was trying to hurt one of my teammates. I guess I overreacted.''

The last hit on Rice came on a running play on which Hill left the pursuit and smashed into Rice. Hill said the letter from the commissioner's office, in notifying him of the fine, said he did not have the authority to take things in his hands.

Hill said he and Rice talked briefly after the game. Apologies Exchanged

''I apologized to him,'' said Hill. ''He did likewise. I'm sure he will say he did things he shouldn't have done during the game. I hit the guy hard.''

Hill would not say he regretted the incident, though he said he regretted the size of the fine. He can appeal by Jan. 31, and he said he had given the matter to his lawyer.

Hill was asked if he would play against Rice the same way again.

''I play aggressively and intensely,'' he said. ''I have to do that to be effective. I don't consider myself a rules-breaker. I have no intent to hurt members of my peer group. But I'll admit I got too emotionally involved and maybe overaggressive.

''We are expected to go through a mental metamorphosis, to go from being gentlemanly and following the rules of society to people who play violently and aggressively for two or three hours on Sunday. It causes us to do things out of character. We have to be able to call up those tendencies on demand and three hours later submerge them on demand.

''It's not easy to do, especially when people across the line of scrimmage are literally the enemy. You have to exercise some sort of control during those three hours. When you're sweating and hurting and blood is running down your face, it's tough to say, 'I'm going to be a gentleman and turn the other cheek.' We all do it, but sometimes it's difficult, especially when you perceive an act that is especially heinous.''

The New Haven Independent

by Paul Bass | August 9, 2005

Wooster Square is the new playing field for NFL cornerback-turned-New Haven developer Kenny Hill. He’s scoring—except in one case where he’s about to sue the city.

Kenny Hill had to step on his tiptoes in huddles with his Oakland Raider teammates in order to see the signals. The program listed him as six-foot-one, 205 pounds; in reality, he never reached six feet or 200 pounds. You don’t find many defensive backs or linebackers that small playing for Super Bowl teams. “That activated me,” Hill recalls. “I knew I was not respected because of my size.”

Twenty-five years later, back in New Haven, the city where he made his name as a college football player, Kenny Hill has something to prove again. This time the terrain is the Wooster Square neighborhood rather than the gridiron. Instead of absorbing gut-busting body blows, Hill spends his days immersed in gut rehabs of hundred-plus-year-old homes. He’s turning neglected gems into showpiece homes—and turning a profit. He hit the ground running just as a real-estate boom sent prices skyward in one of New Haven’s prime neighborhoods for young professionals and downtown workers.

Hill is working on his ninth rehab in four years of homes he’s then renting out. He’s also doing condo conversions. Along the way he has battled the perception that he’s another “football player with a little money who doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

Return to the Elms

Competition, big challenges, long odds, big dreams… those have been the words Kenny Hill has lived by since growing up black, one of nine children, in “David Duke country,” Oak Grove, Louisiana. His father “made it known we had to be special, we had to contribute,” and they would, unlike most of their peers, pursue higher education. Hill faced taunts when, after his all-black school burned down, he and his brother signed up to play on the all-white football team at the town’s other high school. High-school football is big in Oak Grove, so when he became the team’s star, he earned townspeople’s respect—as well as the interest of college recruiters. So much interest, that he would leave his house at 5 a.m. to avoid them. He chose Yale and took his studies seriously, graduating in 1980 with a degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry.

After college, he left for the pros. Over a ten-year career (an eternity in the NFL), he played strong safety for three Super Bowl-winning teams, the Oakland (then L.A.) Raiders in 1981 and 1984 and the New York Giants in ‘87. A subsequent career in sports marketing and consulting increasingly led him to visits to New Haven for a client.

It was then he began to notice the charms of Wooster Square, the picturesque and historic “Little Italy” section of town which Yale students usually discover on trips to Pepe’s and Sally’s Apizza. Hill had been one of the few undergrads not to end up there. Now he also began noticing lovely, though in some cases neglected, older homes. He saw potential—and a challenge.

One day in 2000 he and a friend from Yale’s athletics department decided to buy a brick row house on Court Street for sale. Much of the rest of the block, directly across from Wooster Square’s scenic green, was in good shape. This house, like its last owner, was over 100 years old and in ill health. When the 110-year-old man who owned it died, his estate put it up for sale for $165,000. Hill grabbed it and negotiated a sale with his 80-plus-year-old daughter. People snickered at him for thinking he could make money on New Haven real estate. With savings from his football days, he had put the place redone practically from scratch, working alongside the crews, learning the process from sweeping floors and shoveling dirt to designing architectural plans and securing financing. He preserved moldings and other historic touches, but otherwise stripped it and rebuilt it. He rented it out, and he and his partner began buying other older neighborhood properties.

Meanwhile, the neighborhood was hot—both the rental market, with Yale employees and office workers looking for apartments a quick walk from downtown; and the resale and condo markets. Other houses on Court Street sold for up to three times what Hill had paid for his neglected gem. Hill and his partner were able to use equity from each job to buy and rehab new ones. (They set up separate limited-liability corporations, named after Hill’s dog, for each transaction.) They have also bought properties in the East Rock and Dixwell neighborhoods, the latter of which led to a protracted fight with city government over what he calls the misuse of federal housing money.

With each rehab he sought to add value by finding ways to add apartments. Like the two new basement apartments he added to his latest rehab on St. John Street, a late-19th century home he bought from another elderly Italian-American longtime owner around the corner from the Wooster Square green. Hill sounds like a proud new papa as he opens the door to the basement, brimming with energy and optimism. At 47, he’s trim, in good shape, slender and slight. He still looks like no one’s idea of a pro football defenseman.

When he bought this house on St. John Street, Hill says, it was dark down there. Raw sewage covered the floors. The real-estate agents wouldn’t walk inside. Hill decided to lower the floor to make room for two separate step-down apartments. But he couldn’t fit machinery downstairs. He handed his crew shovels. He told them to dig out 30 yards of fill. The crew told him he was loco.

“Listen guys,” Hill responded. “Think of some of the greatest engineering feats in human history. The Sphinx. The pyramids. This is nothing.”

With the dirt cleared out, he put in hardwood floors, glass block windows, fireplaces, modern kitchens. He ended up with two spacious one-bedroom apartments fetching $1,000 each a month. On the three upstairs floors, the former two-family home now had four more new modern apartments fetching considerably more money. He put in new stairways, kitchens, heating and plumbing. On the third floor he built a back deck, complete with a garden. Looking down on the backyard next door, he noticed a trellis, and decided to put one on his new outside deck to support grapevines.

Hill is also in the midst of gutting and rehabbing a gem of a brownstone on Olive Street, again digging out a new basement apartment, restoring fireplaces, peeling off generations of paint.

Outside of his problems with the city about the house in Dixwell, Hill has gotten along fine with the city, he says. Assistant Building Inspector Mike Corbett agrees. Corbett has dealt with Hill on the Wooster Square properties. “I don’t really have any problems” with Hill, Corbett reports. Like other developers, Hill sometimes moves more slowly on projects that Corbett would like. But when Hill promises to fix or finish something, he does, Corbett says.

With each home, Hill battles odds, battles the inevitable unforeseen construction problems, the housing codes written long after the homes were built. He feels as though he is back competing on the ballfield.

“I walk in [to a finished rehabbed home] and say, ‘This is a like a win.’ This is like having a really tough hard-fought victory against an arch-enemy in football. You walk off the field knowing you’re given everything you’ve got. You’re sore. You’re hurt. It feels so good.”