Cleo Hill averaged a gaudy 25.4 points per game in four years at Winston-Salem Teachers College – now Winston-Salem State - making him the second-highest scorer in program history. He guided the Rams to consecutive Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) titles as a junior and senior, and was a two-time All-CIAA selection and a NAIA first-team All-American in 1961. The St. Louis Hawks chose Hill with the No. 8 pick in the 1961 NBA Draft, making him the first player from a historically black institution to be taken in the first round. A member of the CIAA Hall of Fame class of 1994, Hill, who played collegiately for Hall of Fame coach Clarence “Big House Gaines,” passed away in 2015 at the age of 77.

Passed in 2015 at the age of 77