Voting for the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame’s class of 2024 takes place through November. I urge everyone who knows of the remarkable achievements of Special Olympian Bobby Hill to strongly consider casting a vote for him. Bobby has been on the ballot every year since 2007 but has never been elected. But after representing Alaska on the international stage for the third time by competing in the 2023 Special Olympics World Games in Berlin, bringing home one gold medal and three silvers in powerlifting, his resume is too impressive to ignore. There’s no space here to list his accomplishments, so please read his bio at alaskasportshall.org.
A bigger question, I fear, is that Special Olympians are not considered athletes of Alaska Sports Hall of Fame standards. I would argue that, regardless of his disability, he has risen to the pinnacle of his chosen sport just like all inductees. He has brought positive distinction to the state. His achievements have aired across the globe during hours of live and taped competition. This year alone, ESPN aired 220 hours of coverage during the nine-day Berlin Games, and announcers at the powerlifting venue knew Bobby by his first name.
A goal on the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame mission statement is to ‘inspire,’ and this is where Bobby excels beyond measure. He has shown his Alaska peers that athletics is both a worthy goal and a stepladder to good health. It’s been documented that many with developmental disabilities live longer and richer lives with good health. Bobby has not only competed internationally for more than 20 years, but he lost 45 pounds between his first World Games and his last, reinventing himself as a healthy athlete and not just a strong one.
Beyond that, anyone who has ever been to a UAA or Aces hockey game knows Bobby as ‘The Horseman,’ introduced each game by the arena announcer before riding around the rink on his hockey stick to the glee of appreciative home team fans and the team itself. And he’s been doing that for more than 20 years.
Special Olympics was established in 1968 with the goal of ‘inclusion,’ saying people with developmental disabilities had been isolated from society for too long. Maybe it’s time for Alaska to include them in the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame.
— Mike Lewis
Anchorage
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