From the archives

BLUE-COLLAR BULLDOG FRESNO COACH SUSTAINS VALLEY ETHICS
October 16, 2001

By Jill Painter
Staff Writer

FRESNO - As a young, unpaid assistant football coach at Valley
College, Pat Hill slept in his van, set pins at an old Reseda bowling
alley and worked as a doorman at Big Daddy's in Canoga Park.

Whatever it took to keep his dream alive of someday being a big-time
football coach, Hill did it.
Now, 25 years later, the regular guy with the no-nonsense work ethic
is head coach of the darlings of college football, eighth-ranked
Fresno State.

Fresno?

That was the question posed on the cover of Sports Illustrated in a
recent issue.

``Why not us?'' responds Hill, 49, a onetime student at Crespi High
School in Encino and now in his fifth season as the head coach at
Fresno State.

``I can just be a regular guy here. I don't have to act,'' Hill said
in a recent interview.

``I'm not going to change who I am for anybody. I'm going to be me.
My personality is going to be the personality of my team. That's
really important. The personality of the team is more important than
anything.''

Hill has brought his blue-collar attitudes to a blue-collar school,
and his Bulldogs have responded with a 6-0 record, knocking off
big-name programs Colorado, Wisconsin and Oregon State, giving them a
shot at a major bowl game if they can go undefeated.

They still have to play Hawaii and softer opponents in the Western
Athletic Conference. Yet, Fresno State seems destined to shake up the
Bowl Championship Series.

The Bulldogs pulled off an improbable 25-22 overtime win at Colorado
State on Saturday. Fresno State kicker Asen Asparuhov kicked a
48-yard field goal as time expired to tie it and a 41-yarder in
overtime to win.

``People ask me all the time, Are you surprised to be a top 10
team?'' Hill said. ``My answer is no. A lot of these guys have been
here three, four and five years. They have the scars to prove it. We
know we have a great chance to do something special.''
< 'Regular guy'

Canyon High coach Harry Welch coached Hill at Crespi and then with
him at Valley College. He's not at all surprised Hill has led Fresno
State to a 31-22 record in five seasons, a remarkable feat,
considering the grueling nonconference schedule. And he's been to
bowl games the past two seasons.

``He's a regular guy in the gifts that he's given,'' Welch said.
``But he's not a regular guy in what he's done with the gifts he's
given. He's not ordinary. There's no one like him.''

Seems everyone likes him, even his players.

``I wouldn't play for anybody else,'' said Mike Stovall, a senior
offensive lineman. ``I wouldn't. He's my type of guy. I try to be
like him. I want to be like him. He was a fighter (as a player). He
fought tooth and nail to the bone. He put a little bit of that in me.
And I would hope that I hold up to that.''

Many of his players are now fifth-year seniors, including Heisman
Trophy candidate quarterback David Carr. They all abide by Hill's
simple philosophy: Play hard. The signs are on doors all over.

He has also three rules - be there, do your best and treat others as
you'd like to be treated.

``He's a guy that would strap it on and play center for us tonight if
he could,'' Carr said. ``He gets down and dirty with us. It's a lot
of fun being around the guy. He's the best coach. He's awesome. He
has some quirks but we all do. Fresno fits him.''

Despite his single-minded love of football, Hill knows how to have a
good time.

``He was always a character, but always intense,'' Welch said. ``He
has a terrific sense of humor. He would not use a bottle opener to
open a bottle of beer. He would use his teeth. I've seen him bite a
lit, 100-watt light bulb.''

Hill beams when he talks about breaking ground in January on the new
team room, academic training room and locker room facilities. He
waves to a busload of children who chant, ``Fresno State! Fresno
State!''

He signed a new five-year deal in September, which pays him up to
$350,000 annually - the most he can earn with incentives. It's about
$650,000 less than that of men coaching other top 10 teams.

After struggling financially early in his coaching career - heck, he
hauled in garbage at 4 a.m. as an assistant at Utah - he's not too
particular about how many zeros are in the contract.

``I've taken a lot of grief for living in my van and working those
jobs, but I had to make money and pay the bills,'' Hill said. ``I
wasn't making money coaching. I love this job.''
< Simple demands

Which is why you believe him when he says it's not about the money.
His loyalty will be tested, maybe even by Cal when the season is
done. He has some demands to stay at Fresno State but he's not asking
for much. He just wants cars to stop parking on his practice field on
game days. That is what really wears on him.

And he wants the stadium expanded. Let him see designs - which cost
about $1 million - and he'll know there's a commitment. Fresno State
had its largest crowd - 42,881 - for its most recent home game,
nearly two weeks ago against Louisiana Tech. Save for 500 or so
tickets here and there, the remaining four home games are sold out,
too.

Fan Dan Green, 64, has been a season ticket holder for 20 years and
has had the opportunity to chat with Hill at Rotary luncheons and
other functions.

``He's pretty driven underneath. You can have a good conversation
with him. He's a neat guy to be with and talk to. But he's got a
purpose.''

He's not a guy who can charm the socks off a school administrator.
It's just not his style. The only time he wears a tie is on road
trips. He arrives to work on a Sunday in a T-shirt, shorts and a
worn-out Bulldogs cap. On the inside of the bill, he writes each
score and then the upcoming opponent to remind himself to take it one
game at a time.

As an assistant to Jim Sweeney, Fresno State's coach for 19 years
until 1996, Hill was involved in recruiting.

``Pat doesn't sell them on the social life,'' Sweeney said. ``He
comes across sincerely. It's a blue-collar approach to get a
white-collar result. He's excellent at projecting a young man's
future and his education.''

Quarterback Carr's parents, Rodger and Sheryl Carr, recalled that
Hill arrived at their Bakersfield home five years ago for a
recruiting visit looking disheveled and carrying a suitcase held
together by a bungee cord.

``You just get the feeling when you meet somebody,'' Sheryl Carr
said. ``You can tell. You get a sense about what kind of person they
are. We got that instantly.''

Hill promised to build the team around Carr, his first recruit.

``He said, 'We're going to play big-time football here,''' Rodger
Carr said. ``And we are. He did it. He came through with what he said
he was going to do.''

And he's done it without big-time money. Hill does much of Fresno
State's fund raising himself. He does local commercials and charity
golf tournaments to raise money for the program.

``He's such a down-to-earth superman,'' said Toni Watterman, 51,
who's been attending Fresno State games with her sister for 14 years.
``The reason I know he's great for the team is because he wants them
to become something other than football jocks. He wants them to get
an education. He's a family man. He's got his priorities straight.''
< Focus on education

Hill's priorities were set on education and football at Crespi his
freshman, sophomore and junior years. He started as a 120-pound
center on the freshman team. He was an undersized 150-pound junior
center but he always got the job done and then played collegiately at
the University of California, Riverside.

``My father thought I needed to get into a more disciplined
situation, so they sent me to Crespi,'' Hill said. ``I had never
played football. When I went to Crespi, there were 111 freshman kids
and 103 were out for football. I thought I'd better do it. I missed
all of two-a-days, so I didn't get off to a great start with the
coaches.

``I learned a lot about discipline. It was a very good school. I've
used the work ethic I developed at Crespi.''

Hill has worked as an assistant for the NFL's Cleveland Browns and
Baltimore Ravens, his final job before returning to Fresno State. He
still doesn't have a business card and isn't job hunting.

``This is a great job,'' Hill said. ``There aren't many jobs, I don't
think, in this country that have as much going for it as Fresno
State.''