As a Johns Hopkins campus police officer stationed at the Ralph S. O'Connor Recreation Center, Roy Hilton watches hundreds of students file in and out of the building every day to work out. Standing tall at 6'6", with an athletic build, Officer Hilton has much in common with some of them. But there is one main difference: none of the students have a Super Bowl ring.
Hilton earned the coveted ring in 1971, back before he was known as "Officer," but instead was commonly referred to as "Killer." He was a starting defensive end for the Baltimore Colts, who defeated the Dallas Cowboys 16-13 in Super Bowl V, and was a member of a squad that included football legends such as Johnny Unitas and Bubba Smith.
"I never had a bad game against the Cowboys," said Hilton, "and that particular game was possibly the best one of my life."
Hilton in fact had two sacks and four presses (a "press" is when the defensive player rushes the quarterback and forces him to throw a bad pass), one of which led to the interception which allowed the Colts to score the fourth-quarter field goal which won the game for them.
"After the game, our coach, Roy McCafferty came up to me and said, "Hey Roy, thanks for the Super Bowl. That was a great feeling," said Hilton.
Hilton attributes his consistent performances against the Cowboys to a lingering resentment dating back to when the Cowboys had told him that they intended to pick him in the 1965 NFL draft, but then left him hanging until the 15th round (out of 17) when he was snatched up by the Colts.
Hilton was an all-conference defensive end at Jackson State University, near his hometown of Hazlehurst, Miss. The future star had a unique childhood -- after his father died while his mother was pregnant and his mother died five years later after being struck by lightning, he and his 11 siblings raised themselves. Though Hilton always excelled at sports, he didn't start playing football until his junior year in high school and didn't become a standout until he grew three inches late in his senior year.
When he was recruited by Rod Paige, who at the time was the head athletic director at Utica Junior College, in Utica, Miss. (and is now the Secretary of Education for the Bush administration), Hilton claims that he told Paige, "Sure, just let me grab my other pair of pants."
After leaving Utica to play for Jackson State, Hilton bulked up and became a starting defensive end and offensive tackle for the Tigers. After four successful years, Hilton was selected by the Baltimore Colts in the 1965 NFL draft, and reported for training camp.
At camp, Hilton found himself among 39 other rookies and 41 veterans, all trying to make one of the 40 spots on the team. "I was young and I was quick ... and I was hungry," said Hilton, "I just didn't know how I would be able to go back home and tell people that I didn't make the team -- that's pretty much all I had going for me."
Hilton's desire to make the team eventually proved to be enough -- he was one of three rookies to make the squad, along with Mike Curtis, from Duke, the Colts' #1 pick in the draft that year, and Glenn Ressler, from Penn State, who had won the Maxwell Award, given to each year's best college football player.
"So I had made it into the NFL," Hilton said. "And it took them eleven years to get me out of the league."
Hilton started his first game at the end of his rookie year in the "Runner-Up Bowl," where the NFC and AFC runners-up would play each other (this was the year before the current Super Bowl system was instituted). He had a great game, and made a big impression on head coach Don Shula (who, for the record, was elected to the Football Hall of Fame in 1997, and is the winningest coach in NFL history). "After that, I knew I'd be around the next year," said Hilton.
Hilton spent nine of his eleven years at Baltimore, a stay that included the victory in Super Bowl V as well as a close loss to the New York Jets in Super Bowl III. He spent the 1974 season playing for the New York Giants, the highlight of which was setting the Giants' team record for the longest fumble return, running the ball 76 yards for a touchdown (the record was broken by George Martin several years later). Hilton then played the Atlanta Falcons for the 1975 season, and retired at the end of the year.
In 1979, after being retired for several years, Hilton accepted a job working for former coach and teammate Jimmy Orr at Happy Day Tours, a service that brought in charter flights and buses full of gamblers to Atlantic City. After the company was sued for having a monopoly two years later, and was forced to reduce the amount of flights they were handling, Hilton decided that working at Happy Day was no longer worth it. Having lived out of a suitcase for most of his adult life, he decided to head home to Baltimore to be with his family.
Hilton described how getting a job as a campus police officer at Johns Hopkins was "kind of an accident." He acquired the job in 1987, after a friend whom he had met at Pimlico racetrack, and who had a brother that worked at Hopkins, had recommended him for the position.
"Living at home, working here with the athletes, sitting in the stands and watching my grandsons play ball -- I'm as happy as a pig in slop," Hilton said.
It's been many years since Roy Hilton was an NFL star. Now, the Colts reside in Indianapolis, after moving out of Baltimore in 1984. According to Hilton, football is now a completely different sport, and is more of a business now -- a far cry from the game that once paid his bills. But aside from his impeccable memory for dates and statistics and his Super Bowl ring, there are other ways for Hilton to remember his days of greatness.
"I can remember a few years ago when my grandsons were playing a football game on their Playstation. In the game, you could use historical players, and all of a sudden, they looked up and said, "Grandpa, it's you!'", Hilton said.
"To know that, at one time in your life, you were one of the best athletes in the world -- well, that's a great feeling," he said. "And that's what really matters, how you feel about yourself."
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