"Moving The Chains" Tells Heroic Tale Of Terp Darryl Hill

UMD English Professor Michael Olmert honors the story of Darryl Hill, the first black football player in the ACC, in his new play.

For Immediate Release
March 3, 2011 
Contacts: David Ottalini, 301 405 4076 or dottalin@umd.edu

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - All Darryl Hill wanted to do was play college football. But when he became the first black man to play in the ACC as a Maryland Terrapin in 1963, he knew he would face hatred and racism like he had never seen before. The ACC at the time was a conference rooted in the segregated South. That time of drama - and Darryl Hill's heroism - is captured in a new play called "Moving the Chains" by University of Maryland English Professor Michael Olmert.

Olmert is an Emmy Award-winning author and playwright. He said Darryl Hill never really wanted to be a hero - just another player on the football field. But circumstances at the time forced the young man to look inward for strength and determination. "Moving the Chains" is Olmert's attempt to show how Hill dealt with racism - and turned it into a force for good during the Civil Rights era. 

One of the lines in the play has Hill saying "Bigotry was my steroids. It jacked me up into revenge, got the old juices flowing." In fact he said he always played better during games than in practice because of the ugly crowds. He needed that intestinal fortitude more than once. His life was threatened by a sniper, he was called the "N" word any number of times, cussed at by the Clemson coach. Even hotels would not open their doors to the team. 

Yet the ugliness never came from the players - who began to appreciate Hill as a player. Wake Forest's Brian Piccolo shook his hand and talked with him - never worrying about what the fans might say.

Last May, Hill attended a table reading of the play in Tawes Hall on campus. Students could not believe the discrimination he faced. Hill said people are "used to seeing the hoses and demonstrations of the '60s, but when you switch it over to football, it just doesn't seem to click in. I think it's time that the nation understood that the University of Maryland was on the forefront of integrating sports. The play is as much about me as it is about the [university's] administration of the time."
 Mike Olmert said despite every obstacle - Darryl Hill succeeded at Maryland - and he succeeded in life. But not without a few bruises along the way. 

"Moving the Chains" will have a stage reading March 21 at 7:45 p.m. at the historic Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C. as part of its "Backstage at the Lincoln Series."

The performance will be followed by a Q & A with leading sports figures and journalists. Olmert says his ultimate goal is to have a staged production of the play - with Darryl Hill in attendance.

Listen to a 20 minute interview with Professor Olmert on Darryl Hill and the genesis of "Moving the Chains."


(Priya Kumar contributed to this release via Terp Magazine)