Back when he played pee wee football, every time Jamal Hill scored a touchdown, his mom scored one too.
When he got in the open field, Tammie Hill followed close behind down the sidelines.
“I remember the rec-ball days that we have on DVD,” she said. “My son thinks that’s the funniest thing in the world.”
She stopped running down the sidelines when Hill reached middle school, but her support and involvement only grew. Hill’s father, Jeffrey, a retired army veteran, passed away when Hill was 5 years old. Tammie has been a rock for her son.
Hill and his mother are a team. When Hill left home and traveled to the Pacific Northwest, he and his mother vowed to not let the distance come between them and their community. Hill is starting on one of the nation’s top programs, but that hasn’t stopped him from contributing to his community in any way possible — a mindset which stems from his mother.
Mom sends texts the 19-year-old college sophomore almost every morning. Sometimes it’s as short as ”Good morning, I love you. Just be great.” On others, it’s ”I believe in you.” Some days, it’s much longer.
A combination of busy schedules and the three-hour time difference between their hometown of Rex, Georgia to Eugene, Oregon make for inconsistent opportunities to talk on the phone.
“We may not get to talk every day, but I inspire him and he inspires me,” she said. “Sometimes he forgets and he calls me and I’m like ‘J, you know what time it is?’”
The anxiety of watching her son’s games live crushes Tammie, so she doesn’t typically watch fully until the next day on YouTube, once she knows the outcome. But Saturday, Nov. 7, was a special day. A day when all the hard work she and her son had put in came to fruition. So she tuned in live.
As soon as Hill returned to the locker room after his first collegiate start against Stanford, he called his mother.
He had to make sure his number one fan had seen him play.
“Mama, how’d I do?” he said.
“You did great,” she responded.
Home away from home
When it came time to commit to a school in the winter of 2019, Hill wanted a school that would provide that extra layer of support; a program he could call home.
He found exactly that when he came to Eugene in fall 2019. Despite the initial culture shock that inevitably comes with moving from the South to the Pacific Northwest, Hill said he feels at home.
“The culture here, it was different from anything I’ve ever felt at any school I ever visited,” he said. “It’s not for cameras, it’s not for the rah-rah.”
Although Tammie said the decision was entirely up to her son, she played a large role in the recruiting process. Her experience years earlier with her godson Terrell Lewis — an outside linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams who attended the University of Alabama — proved useful.
“The whole experience when we went to Oregon, that was so different from everywhere else that we went,” she said.
Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal was Alabama’s offensive line coach at the time. So when Cristobal and his staff came knocking on the Hill family door, Tammie already knew what to expect.
“I have a lot of confidence in the staff that I left him in good hands,” she said.
A perfect fit
Since Cristobal took over as the Ducks’ head coach, he’s been intentional about his approach. He’s stressed the importance of family and brotherhood while demanding respect from his players. He preaches the importance of the program’s success over that of any one individual.
Hill’s mentality fits to perfection.
Midway through Hill’s junior year at Morrow High School, he broke his finger. Head coach Jerome Weaks said the medical staff did their best to rehabilitate him, but when gameday came around, they just didn’t feel comfortable playing him. Hill fought back and insisted he be out there with his team.
And so, with his hand engulfed in a thick club of athletic tape and padding, he took the field.
“There was one play where the ball was thrown his way, and he went up with one hand and picked it off,” Weaks said. “It was one of the best games of his career.”
A few weeks later, Hill and his team were in position to make the playoffs, a rarity for the Morrow program.
Midway through that week’s game, Hill bruised his shoulder bone. His mother remembers him favoring that shoulder the rest of the game. Again, his availability would be in jeopardy.
“The next game I was like ‘J just sit the game,’” she said. “He was like ‘they need me, If nothing else than just to motivate my team.’”
So they took a trip to a carpet store and after purchasing an assortment of material, wrapped his shoulder with strips of carpeting and other padding to secure it for the game.
“He’s not one to take medication,” she said.
So there he was, out on the field with his team yet again.
“He had the best game… the announcer was like ‘I hope they don’t throw it to his side,’” she said.
They threw it to his side, and Hill finished the game with two interceptions.
And Morrow made the playoffs.
Giving back
When Hill came to Eugene, he felt the love immediately.
“Mom, they all in,” he said of the fans and atmosphere which surround the program.
It’s a rewarding feeling for a player who has so often given back to the community from which he came.
During Hill’s recruiting visits, he and his mother brought underclassmen, often freshmen, from Morrow High School along with them. He saw it as a way to give them an opportunity to get out of Georgia and both explore areas and tour schools they otherwise wouldn’t get the chance to.
“We pick one of those children up and I pack them in the car and they’re like my own,” Tammie said. “I took them up to meet Terrell [Lewis] at Alabama because some of those kids will never get to visit in their lifetimes, but those are memories that they can hold onto.”
When Hill eventually departed from Georgia to begin his collegiate career, his mother stayed involved with the Morrow program, using her son’s story to motivate others.
“The reason I still volunteer is because I believe in my community,” she said. “So just because my son’s gone it doesn’t stop my interest or my work in the community.”
She participates in motivational zoom calls with players and helps facilitate a pre-game prayer group which raises money for pre-game meals for the team.
When COVID-19 hit and the country shut down, Hill returned home. His trainer delivered equipment to his house which he used to fashion a makeshift gym. Then, following in his mother’s footsteps, he used both the front and back yards as spaces to host others; student athletes that were without gym access due to the lockdown.
“He’s such a humble child, I truly admire that,” Tammie said. “He teaches his mom some things.”
She believes her son truly wants to make a difference in his community. When the time comes, he plans to invest in it and create a business that can accomplish those goals she said.
“I want something more than what money can buy,” Hill often tells her.
That time may well come, but for now, Hill is sticking to football.
In his second season, the safety who failed to crack the nation’s top-500 recruits has already cracked Oregon’s starting lineup. A position where he’s poised to be a difference-maker for the coming years. Back home, his number one fan will be cheering him on the whole way — even if she doesn’t watch the games until the next day.
