WSSU basketball legend Cleo Hill dies

WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina -- Cleo Hill, one of the best basketball players in Winston-Salem State and CIAA history, has died.

He was 77.

Teddy Blunt, a friend of Hill’s who was also a star basketball player for the Rams, said Hill died in Orange, N.J., on Monday morning at his home after being under the care of hospice for a few days.

“I think a lot of people in North Carolina and on the East Coast knew who Cleo Hill was,” Blunt said by telephone from his home in Wilmington, Del. “He was highly revered, and he was one of the best who ever played at Winston-Salem State.”

Hill, who graduated from WSSU in 1961, is the second-leading scorer in school history behind Earl “The Pearl” Monroe. Hill scored 2,488 points in his four seasons playing for Coach Clarence “Big House” Gaines.

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