WESSON – Albert “Sonny” Hill of Hammond, La., a former football player and coach, will be inducted into the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) Sports Hall of Fame at a banquet set for April 29 in the Muse Center on the Rankin Campus of Hinds Community College.

Hill played quarterback and defensive back and ran track at Copiah-Lincoln Community College from 1957-59. He also played for the college during his senior year at Co-Lin High School. During his freshman year, he was named Most Outstanding Back in the state junior college conference, Junior College All-American and to the Mississippi All-State Junior College team. Hill was also named a Junior College All-American and to the Mississippi All-State Junior College team during his sophomore year. He earned the Most Outstanding Player award in the Junior College All-American football game in Albuquerque, N.M., that year.

After graduating from Co-Lin, Hill transferred to Delta State where he played for two years and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He began his coaching career at Pascagoula High School in 1963 and also coached at Holmes Junior College. He was an assistant football coach at Southeastern Louisiana University from 1981-86 and at Delta State University from 1974 to 1981, serving as defensive coordinator from 1979 to 1981. He also coached junior high football in Covington, La., and high school football in Pearl River, La., and in Hammond, La., where his team won the state football championship in 1971.

Hill was inducted into the Co-Lin Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. He and his wife, Charlotte, have one daughter, Brenda Simkins of Pascagoula, and three grandsons, Layken, Parker and Sawyer.

Other members of the Mississippi Community College Sports Hall of Fame from Co-Lin are Carl Medley, Alton Ricks, the late Henry “Hook” Stone, the late M. K. Turk, the late “Chunkin” Charlie Ward, Alton Greenlee, the late A.J. “Red” Mangum, the late Bob Ricketts, Gwyn Young and the late Bucky Waters.