Powerful Life

OPPD retiree Barney Hill inducted into Boys Town Alumni Sports Hall of Fame

As a young boy, Barney Hill caught the eye of a Boys Town track coach while he was running around during recess.

“You’re outrunning Bruce Nichols and those kids, our top athletes. Have you ever run track?” the coach asked Hill, about 12 years old at the time. Unfamiliar with the sport, Hill agreed to meet the coach after school, where he ran some time trials.

“Coach looked at the watch and asked me, ‘Can you do that again?’” Hill said.

That was the beginning of an illustrious running career that had Hill rewriting records books at Boys Town, the state of Nebraska, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the North Central Conference. He wowed sports fans, pushed competitors and provided lots ink for local sports writers.

A proud OPPD retiree, Hill was inducted into the Boys Town Alumni Sports Hall of Fame on April 30. A number of his former co-workers helped him celebrate the night before, even though few who worked alongside him at OPPD’s generating units during his 25-year career, from 1987-2012, knew the extent of his feats.

Where credit is due

Hill credits his mother, Betty Jo Hill, his parole officer and Boys Town for saving his life.

“As a kid, I was in and out of the court system,” he said. “I was sent to Kearney (Youth Facility) when I was 8. My mother, I remember her crying and begging for help. Mrs. Davis, my parole officer, sent me to Boys Town.”

The North Omaha neighborhood where Hill grew up was rough, and most of the kids he ran around with then died young.

Initially, Hill thought he’d run track to pass time. “There was nothing else to do; I pulled dandelions for work on the Boys Town Farm,” Hill said.

Under the tutelage of Boys Town track and cross country coaches, Hill put in the work to become a champion. Before long, he was beating everyone. He often had to show proof of his age because competitors were in disbelief.

In addition to regular practices, he recalls getting up early every morning and running behind a car that a friend drove along 144^th Street. In the summertime, he’d run from Boys Town to 60^th Street.

A great run

The big payoffs came at state meet time. He was the first back-to-back Nebraska Class A cross country state champion in 1971 and 1972, with times of 10:03 and 9:45, respectively. The course was 1.94 miles.

At the 1973 state track meet, Hill accomplished a rare triple victory in the 880-yard (1:53.5), mile (4:22.9) and two-mile (9:32.2). That state meet was the first opportunity the distance runners had to run more than one of the three events, a feat many thought was too strenuous. Hill proved it possible, and he paved the way for future Nebraska runners to do the same.

Hill’s times still rank high on the all-time lists, 51 years later. Hill’s mile time is just 12 seconds over the state meet record and his two-mile time is 75 seconds over the record. The 880-yard race changed to 800-yard in 1980. Hill’s 880-time is just two seconds over the 800 record of 1:51.59 set in 1997, despite being 15 feet, 4 inches longer.

After the state track meet, an Omaha World-Herald sports columnist interviewed the second-place mile finisher, Larry Irwin of Omaha Central.

“You should think you should win every race you run,” said Irwin in the article. “You hate to admit it but you can’t beat him (Hill). I tried three times to pass him. He wouldn’t let me. You don’t just take off on Barney Hill, he keeps you out. When I couldn’t pass him, I decided to stay with him as long as I could.”

Hill’s high school career earned him three varsity letters in both cross country and track, along with two in basketball. He also served as Boys Town’s senior class president. Hill was one of five male finalists for the Omaha World-Herald’s 22^nd Nebraska High School Athlete of the Year in 1973. And now he’s a member of the Boys Town Alumni Sports Hall of Fame.

On to college

After graduating from Boys Town in 1973, Hill continued to run all four years of college at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Highlights included winning the Drake Relays, Texas Relays and setting records at UNO and throughout the North Central Conference.

He ran against Olympian Mike Boit of Kenya, who ran for Eastern New Mexico University. Hill’s college coach, who he eventually could outrun, had competed against famed Olympians Kip Keino of Kenya and Jim Ryun.

“When I got older, I realized it was a God-given natural gift that I was supposed to use,” Hill said. “Along the way, I made a lot of good friends.”

At age 19, Hill went back to the courthouse and his juvenile records were sealed.

Power tools

Hill majored in Criminal Justice at UNO and intended to go into law enforcement. Instead, he began working with Local 464, where he learned to weld. OPPD hired him in 1987 as a helper in Central Maintenance after he completed his apprenticeship.

Along the way, he said, he faced some racial discrimination, but as with athletics, he put in extra study hours. He found great encouragement from co-workers, including Mike Bose, Phil Mruz, Mike McCulskey, Tim Scurlock, Ben Bickels, Rich Conner, Rich Clemens, Kirk Miller, Jim McKinley, Dave Dietz, Gary Gates and Tim Burke.

“Athletics taught me discipline and how to get along with and work with other people as a team,” Hill said. “Athletics also taught me how to work as an individual, how to work hard for something I wanted, and how to start and finish something.”

That paid off for OPPD as Hill worked all of the maintenance outages and did his fair share of routine maintenance at athe utility’s generating units over two and a half decades. He worked his way up to supervisor pressure equipment in Central Maintenance, then moved to Fort Calhoun Station Plant Operations, from which he retired as a senior production planner in 2012.

After retiring, Hill took his talents to Cobb Mechanical, where he worked several years on Offutt Air Force Base’s new StratCom building.

Enjoying life

Hill and his wife, Michelle, married in 2018 and moved to Palm Coast, Florida, in 2020. They spend their summers in Okoboji, Iowa.

Being an ex-athlete who maintains a fitness regime paid off earlier this year when Hill had surgery for a tear in his aorta. He’s doing rehab and recovering nicely.

“I’m so glad that Michelle and I work out. I was in shape when I went in there. I can’t imagine what recovery would have been like had I not been in shape,” he said.

‘Very blessed’

While they enjoy spending time on the water, they also keep busy. Barney has a business called The Handy Husband and will start working on his Florida home inspection license. Michelle is a partner in a cybersecurity firm and also has a side business doing face-painting.

Family includes Barney’s two daughters, a son in law, three grandkids and one great grandson. Michelle has a son and a daughter.

“I have been very blessed,” Hill said.