Mack Lee Hill (August 17, 1940 – December 14, 1965) was an American college and professional football player. He played running back at Southern University and for the American Football League's Kansas City Chiefs for two seasons (1964–65), before dying while undergoing knee surgery, days after a game against the Buffalo Bills.
He made the Chiefs' roster in 1964 as a rookie free agent out of Southern and wound up as the team's second-leading rusher that season with 567 yards and four touchdowns on 105 carries. He played in the AFL All-Star Game after his rookie campaign. He gained 627 yards, second-most on the team, in 1965, even though he did not complete the season, dying after the 12th game. He was nicknamed "The Truck." His number 36 is retired.
Through Hill's inspiration, the Chiefs created the Mack Lee Hill Award, which is given each season to the team's most outstanding rookie.
He had a son, Marzell Hill.
Famous quotes containing the words lee and/or hill:
“As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it—whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.”
—Harper Lee (b. 1926)
“The hill farmer ... always seems to make out somehow with his corn patch, his few vegetables, his rifle, and fishing rod. This self-contained economy creates in the hillman a comparative disinterest in the world’s affairs, along with a disdain of lowland ways. “I don’t go to question the good Lord in his wisdom,” runs the phrasing attributed to a typical mountaineer, “but I jest cain’t see why He put valleys in between the hills.””
—Administration in the State of Arka, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)