Once a Chiefs final cut, longtime Mizzou coach Andy Hill has fresh start with them now
Through nearly a quarter century and numerous roles under three head coaches, Andy Hill was part of the very connective tissue of Missouri football. The state treasure from Trenton was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2014 and a constant and welcome presence in the Kansas City area as a recruiter.
So it was the end of a 24-year era when Hill, who also played at Mizzou from 1980-84, wasn’t retained by new MU coach Eliah Drinkwitz when he took over for Barry Odom after last season.
The unceremonious ending notwithstanding, Hill’s time there nonetheless translated into a fresh start at age 58 with the Chiefs, who hired him in March to be an assistant to special teams coordinator Dave Toub.
And that’s a win for one of the good guys.
Never mind that Toub said he first tried to talk him out of it, candidly letting Hill know that despite all his years in coaching his first NFL job wouldn’t be so much glamour as it would be about “you’ve got to do a lot of (BS) stuff.”
Never mind because Hill has known Toub well since they worked together at MU in the mid-1990s — back when Toub was supplementing his income with side work that at least in a manner of speaking cemented their friendship.
“Dave Toub, before he got hired by Andy Reid in Philadelphia was finishing up my basement,” said Hill, speaking Thursday via a Zoom call from the very basement where he said Toub’s work is holding up “so far, so good.”
“And if you ask about half the people in Columbia, Missouri, (who have) a house addition or (finished) basement,” Hill said, “Dave Toub was probably doing it at the time he was here.”
The two men kept in touch through the years, particularly when Toub joined Andy Reid with the Chiefs after the 2012 season and Hill would pop into offseason workouts or practices now and then when he was in town recruiting KC high school talent.
And the chance to work with Reid, also a former Mizzou assistant, was another persuasive reason Hill passed up what he called opportunities to stay at Mizzou outside of coaching to embrace the grunt work and a new adventure.
But something else has been bubbling in all this that makes it a certain thrill for Hill.
Growing up less than 100 miles northeast of here, Hill was on what he called “1,000 percent” Kansas City Chiefs turf. His parents used to take him to their summer training camps at William Jewell, and he fondly remembers his Super Bowl champion sweatshirt from the Chiefs’ 1969 season and 23-7 victory over Minnesota in Super Bowl IV.
So fondly it comes with an asterisk to this day. He was wearing it for a game of “kill the guy with the ball” when a buddy ripped it.
“I ran home crying,” he said.
That wasn’t the only time something he was bummed out by something Chiefs-related. After an MU career in which he caught 51 passes for 946 yards and scored seven touchdowns, Hill was invited to camp under coach John Mackovic. Up against the likes of Carlos Carson, Stephone Paige and Henry Marshall, he made it through most of the preseason … even if he was always looking over his shoulder.
Or more specifically, clinging tight to his breakfast tray on Monday mornings while avoiding eye contact with a coach who might tell him he was done.
He held on until the last cut, he said, and he’d also get a shot with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League before ultimately gravitating towards coaching. His first full time work in the business was at Hutchinson (Kansas) Community College, where he was head coach in 1994 and 1995 before being hired by Larry Smith at MU.
Between his playing and coaching career there, Hill was part of 17 of the school’s 33 bowls. Put another way, as our friend Gabe DeArmond of Powermizzou.com pointed out, the last time Mizzou was in a bowl without Hill along was 1979.
As it happens, fittingly enough, Hill said the highlight of that career was at Arrowhead Stadium in 2007 when Mizzou beat Kansas (“that team to the west,” as Hill put it) 36-28 to ascend to No. 1.
That would come as no surprise to anyone down on the field after the game, watching an elated Hill running around hugging everyone he saw.
Now, he joins the franchise he has long cherished as it stands in the afterglow of its Super Bowl LIV victory over San Francisco in its first appearance in the NFL finale since 1970.
As the Chiefs were beating Tennessee to earn the berth to Florida, Hill was in the stands with family, holding off on the temptation to leave to beat traffic. Because he wanted to see owner Clark Hunt hoist up the AFC championship trophy bearing the name of his father, Lamar.
When he was in the headquarters facility near Arrowhead for a few days before the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic shut everything down in March, Hill said the “positive mojo and positive vibes” were radiating from everyone in the building.
That was, he said, “phenomenal for me.”
Just like the timing of this job itself, regardless of the learning curve and the drudgery part … and that time when the Chiefs cut him.
The day the news broke, Hill said he answered congratulatory phone calls and texts from about 3:30 p.m. to midnight.
Which was nothing compared to when the offer came from Reid to get to work with special coaches and be around “No. 15” (Patrick Mahomes) with his dream team.
“We had some real tears and some great clapping in our house,” Hill said. “Hopefully I can add some small piece.”
While he gets the peace of mind that should come with making the Chiefs at last.
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 5:00 PM.