Dalton Hilliard
Sport: Football
Induction Year: 1997
University: LSU
Induction Year: 1997
By Sheldon Mickles
Three years after the completion of an outstanding football career, Dalton Hilliard has a chance to set one more record – sort of – when he is inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame next Saturday night.
While acceptance speeches at the gala banquet often run a little long, it would be a big surprise if the quiet, unassuming Hilliard doesn’t display the flash and dash that made him a star running back at the prep, college and pro levels – all in the state of Louisiana – over 16 memorable years.
Appropriately, Hilliard’s considerable exploits have helped him land a permanent spot alongside the state’s all-time sports greats in the Hall of Fame display case at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches. The induction of Hilliard and seven others will increase membership to 180.
It’s unlikely he’ll use all of the allotted three minutes to accept his award and address the crowd. After all, talking wasn’t Hilliard’s thing – running was.
During a career that started at Patterson High School and continued at LSU and in the NFL with the New Orleans Saints, Hilliard let his powerfully built legs do most of the talking. And they spoke volumes as he rushed for at least 4,000 yards at each stop and finished with 13,102 yards, breaking the career records at Patterson and LSU and missing the Saints’ mark by 104 yards.
“I don’t have any regrets whatsoever,” said Hilliard, who declined most interview requests after the Saints elected to not offer him a contract for the 1994 season. “I think I had a blessed career in college and also in the NFL. I had a good time along the way, and I did a lot of things people didn’t think I could do.”
Included among them are all the college scouts who didn’t think a 5-foot-8, 195-pounder from a Class 2A school could help their program. In addition, Hilliard suffered an ankle injury as a junior that helped keep most of the major universities away – except Oklahoma and LSU.
“Other than LSU, the only major school that showed any interest was Oklahoma,” Hilliard recalled recently. “One of the Selmon brothers (an assistant at OU) came down and told me that I was too little to run the wishbone. I didn’t have the height and speed they were looking for.”
LSU’s coaches, however, saw what Hilliard’s older brother Curtis had seen when Dalton was only a freshman. Then a senior, Curtis Hilliard was in the process of rewriting Patterson’s record books when he told principal Ernest McMurray that his younger sibling would shatter his marks.
When McMurray told Curtis Hilliard it wouldn’t be done, Curtis simply replied, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Curtis Hilliard, who earned a football scholarship to Jackson State, was right. Dalton went on to rush for 4,888 yards, averaging 170 yards per game, and left the school as the No. 2 rusher in Louisiana prep history.
While he didn’t possess great height and speed, Hilliard used deceptive quickness and twisting moves to zig-zag his way into the record books.
“Dalton had more moves than I ever had,” Curtis Hilliard said. “He used to come up to me and say, ‘How do you make those moves?’ I just told him to do your thing.”
“So many of his runs were unbelievable,” McMurray said. “I’ve seen him go through the line with one foot in the air, get hit in the opposite leg and take a step and keep going.”
Hilliard refined those breathtaking moves at the college level and perfected them in the pros. In doing so, he often frustrated larger, would-be tacklers by giving them a shoulder or hip and taking it away just as quickly with a nifty cut – most of the time leaving them with nothing but a handful of air as he continued on his way.
“I would put Dalton in the open field with anybody in the league,” former Saints guard Jim Dombrowski said in 1989, “and I guarantee you Dalton’s going to be running away and the other guy is going to be on the ground.”
While Hilliard was obviously blessed with natural talent and ability, he credits high school coaches Jack Andre, Harrison Pierre and Rick Wilson with his early development in the sport – both physically and mentally.
“They were behind me and taught me well coming up, they were father figures to me,” Hilliard said. “They always told me that I had the ability to play major college football. I just took their advice and things kind of went my way.”
For most athletes, that would be a gross understatement. For Hilliard, it’s par for the course even though he went on to become LSU’s career rushing leader with 4,050 yards and finished second on the Saints’ all-time list with 4,164.
When he arrived at LSU, Hilliard was just a part of a highly touted recruiting class that included top-notch running backs like Garry James, Karl Bernard and Gill Fenerty.
But Hilliard dug in and quickly established himself as the Tigers’ top offensive threat, rushing for 901 yards and 11 TDs and adding five more scores receiving in 1982. His 16 total TDs and 92 points broke the NCAA freshman records that had been set two years earlier by Herschel Walker.
Two years later, Hilliard ran for 1,268 yards and scored 13 TDs while averaging a robust 5.0 yards per carry. And as a senior, he scampered for 1,134 yards and 14 more touchdowns, giving him three of the top nine rushing seasons in school history.
There were many highlights on the way to becoming a three-time All-Southeastern Conference selection, of course, but two Hilliard cherishes came in a magical freshman season for coach Jerry Stovall’s team.
He remembers going over the 100-yard mark in a 45-7 romp over Oregon State in his collegiate debut before 80,000 screaming fans in Tiger Stadium. And two weeks later, Hilliard rushed for 127 yards and one TD on 26 carries and caught four passes for 80 yards and two scores, accounting for 207 total yards in a stunning 24-13 upset of fourth-ranked Florida in Gainesville.
“I don’t think it turned out bad at all,” Hilliard said of his career at LSU. “(Assistant) coach Buddy Nix came and recruited me, and even though he was the linebackers coach, he was confident that I could play running back and be a good running back there.
“And coach Stovall, he was one of those head coaches who could recruit,” Hilliard said with a laugh. “He could sell anybody anything, and he really instilled a lot of confidence in my mother. Then, he and the coaching staff gave me every opportunity to play.”
NFL scouts took notice of what he did with that opportunity. But just like when he came out of high school, there were some questions about his size and the ability to remain durable while taking a pounding from linemen who outweighed him by 100 pounds and 250-pound linebackers with as much speed as he had.
“There was a lot of doubt about whether I could play at that level,” Hilliard said. “I didn’t have any doubts personally, but a lot of people didn’t think I would make it. That sort of motivated me.”
The Saints were the beneficiaries when they made Hilliard their second-round pick in the 1986 draft, the 31st player selected overall and the eighth running back chosen.
The way Hilliard bobbed and weaved his way through opposing defenses helped him earn the respect of his teammates – especially on the defensive side of the ball. That also saved him some good-natured rookie hazing when he quickly became close friends with linemen Frank Warren and Jim Wilks and linebackers Rickey Jackson and Vaughan Johnson.
“Those guys just kind of picked me up and they didn’t give me as hard a time as some of the other rookies,” Hilliard said. “I had to sing one time in the cafeteria (a time-honored NFL tradition) and they left me alone after that. I guess they liked me because I didn’t talk much … I wasn’t outspoken.”
After serving as a parttime starter his first three seasons with the club, Hilliard became the Saints’ go-to back in 1989. He started all 16 games for the first time in his career, setting personal highs in rushing yardage, rushing attempts, receptions, receiving yardage and touchdowns (including rushing, receiving and total).
His 1,262 rushing yards ranked him third in the NFC and fifth in the NFL, and he added 52 receptions for 514 yards to earn a spot in the Pro Bowl. His 1,776 total yards from scrimmage led the NFC and was the most for a Saints’ player since George Rogers picked up 1,800 in 1981. Hilliard’s 18 total TDs also shattered the old club record of 13 set by Rogers in ’81.
Hilliard’s career took a downward turn in 1990, however, when he tore the posterior cruciate ligament in his knee. He played in only six games that year and never regained his starting role, opening just seven games over the next three seasons while playing mostly as a third-down back.
Then, the Saints didn’t bring him back for the 1994 season. A victim of the NFL’s new salary cap and a youth movement, Hilliard was left to begin his second career at the age of 30 after eight good seasons with the team.
In addition to his 4,164 rushing yards, he finished second on the club’s all-time list in total yards (6,397) and in points scored (300). Hilliard also set club records for total TDs (53) and rushing TDs (39).
Today, he is as successful in the business world as he was on the football field, owning a Morgan City-based oilfield rental company named Dalton Hilliard Enterprises. He’s also a co-owner of a company that supplies equipment to welders and pipefitters.
“I was somewhat disappointed when the Saints didn’t sign me, because they thought a veteran wouldn’t take a pay cut and adjust to meet the standards of the team,” Hilliard said. “But I was still competitive, and when you play at that competitive level, you want to play as long as you can.”
Especially if you let your legs do all the talking.
