About Inductee

Grissom High School has been known as a hotbed of track and field athletes almost from the day it first opened in 1969. One of its foremost runners in those defining early days was Michael Hill. Mike helped carry on a standard of excellence at our school, said former Grissom track coach Adam Williamson. He was right up there with guys like Steve Bolt, David McKannan, David Low and Frank Rouse. Competing first for coach John Meals and later for Williamson, Hill and his teammates formed a tight-knit group that still holds several school, city and state records four decades later. As a sophomore in 1973, Hill ran a 4:28 mile and a 9:20 in the 2-mile, the third fastest time in the nation for a 10th grader. He won several cross country meets as a junior and finished second (to McKannan) in the state indoor 2-mile despite tearing a hamstring on the last lap, an injury that sidelined him until the middle of his senior year. He returned in time to finish third in the state outdoor 2-mile. Following a four-year career at Grissom from 1971-75, Hill went on to the University of Alabama (1975-79), where he became an All-SEC distance runner in track and cross country for coach John Mitchell while studying pre-medicine and majoring in chemistry. His favorite track memories in high school include being a sophomore member, along with Low, of the 1973 state champion cross country team, the same year a pair of senior teammates set record times, Bolt in the mile (4.07.4) and McKannan in the 2-mile (9:11). Later at Alabama, Hill set personal best times of 3:46 in the 1500 meters the equivalent of a 4:04 mile and 8:51 in the 2-mile. He also placed second in the SEC Championships in the indoor 3-mile. Among the other personal bests during his college years were a 30:22 in a 10K and a fifth place finish (2:22.25) in 1977 at the first Rocket City Marathon, which was won by Steve Bolt, his friend and teammate at both Grissom and Alabama. I always appreciated Coach Mitchell at Alabama, said Hill, because he was very understanding and allowed me to change my school as I needed to achieve balance between meeting pre-med obligations and devoting what I could to track performance. He was one of the first to congratulate me on getting in medical school on the first round. Hill continued running for four more years while enrolled at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine (1980-83). In 1986 he became board-certified in Internal Medicine from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, and in 1996 he acquired his board certification in Diagnostic Radiology from the University of Tennessee. He now operates a private practice in Internal Medicine and Diagnostic Radiology in Knoxville. Hill and his M.D. wife, Donna McHargue, have four children (David, Jennifer, Janna and Jessica) and three grandchildren.