Ike Hilliard participated in the late summer commencement due to a schedule conflict with the NFL season. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
Hilliard Completes Long Route to UF Degree
Saturday, December 15, 2018 | Football, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – On the same field where Ike Hilliard had the best game statistically of his Gators career – a career-high 192 yards and two touchdowns in a victory over Florida State in 1995 -- the University of Florida held commencement ceremonies Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
Meanwhile, in his fifth season as receivers coach for the Washington Redskins, the 42-year-old Hilliard is in Jacksonville preparing for Sunday's game against the Jaguars.
While Hilliard was unable to be at UF, it's fitting he is back in Florida during graduation weekend.
Hilliard is finally a UF graduate, 21 years after he capped his college career with his most memorable game for the Gators, a three-touchdown, 150-yard performance against the Seminoles in the 1997 Sugar Bowl that delivered Florida its first national championship. Hilliard completed coursework this fall for his degree in criminal justice, fulfilling a promise he made to his late mother, Doris, and at the urging of his wife, Luly.
"To be the first in my immediate family to graduate is a big deal,'' Hilliard said earlier this week. "To complete it, it's gratifying. It's great for the kids of mine to see and to have my wife backing me throughout the process and trying to get that done. It's now a bit of relief that it's over, and now we'll move to the next chapter."
In preparation for the milestone, Hilliard made arrangements last summer to return to UF to participate in August commencement ceremonies, knowing he would be unable to break away during the NFL regular season.
Ike Hilliard in action against Florida State at Florida Field in 1995. (Photo: Courtesy of The Sporting News)
Redskins coach Jay Gruden supported Hilliard's quest to earn his degree, though Hilliard kept his goal to himself until prior to departing preseason camp in August to return to Gainesville and walk in his cap and gown. That's when Gruden made the announcement during a team meeting.
Hilliard's colleagues were surprised and supportive.
"It's definitely a topic now,'' Hilliard said. "It was obviously shocking to a lot of the boys on the team when I had the opportunity to leave during training camp and go to walk. I got a standing ovation from everybody. I've had some very good conversations with a lot of players afterward. Hopefully my situation can be somewhat inspiring to a lot of the young men who have their opportunity to come out early and go back and get it done."
His wife of 17 years, Luly is Hilliard's most ardent cheerleader.
Once Hilliard retired as a player in 2008 following a 12-year career with the Giants and Bucs, he embarked on a coaching career, his first job as a volunteer coach with the Florida Tuskers of the now-defunct United Football League. He broke into the NFL as an assistant receivers coach with the Dolphins in 2011, coached receivers for the Redskins in 2012, Buffalo in 2013, and he returned to Washington in 2014.
Through all the moves and the grind of coaching in the NFL, Luly pushed Hilliard to consider earning his degree to set a positive example for the couple's kids and others. She is now the proud wife of a college graduate.
"Among all of his accolades, I would say that graduating a Gator is the most significant. It's beyond the importance of obtaining a degree because his story can impact and encourage so many people at many different seasons of their life,'' Luly said Saturday via Facebook. "Whether it's our children, his colleagues, his players or myself ... I am truly inspired by him.
"He has maintained a commitment to his family, his job and his school and juggled all of them equally no matter how long it took. We teach our kids that they are in competition with no one other than who they were yesterday. Ike outcompetes himself every day."
Hilliard arrived at UF in 1994 from Patterson, La. He teamed with fellow receiver Reidel Anthony in former UF coach Steve Spurrier's Fun 'N' Gun to become the first set of receivers from the same school to be drafted in the first round of the same draft. Following his junior season, Hilliard was the seventh pick of the 1997 draft and Anthony went 16th overall to Tampa Bay.
Hilliard still ranks prominently in the school's record book. He caught a pass in a school-record 35 consecutive games and ranks second in career touchdown catches (29), third in 100-yard games (eight) and seventh in career receiving yards (2,214).
Hilliard started to pursue his degree online in 2012 and slowly chipped away over the years as Luly nudged him along and UF academic advisor Tim Aydt and others at UF's Otis Hawkins Center at Farrior Hall helped guide him
"It just wasn't at the forefront of my list of things to do, and shame on me for that,'' he said. "But after getting yelled out for long enough and that sort of thing, I went on a concerted effort to get locked in with everyone back at Florida and get through all the loopholes that I needed to get through to try and finish it online. It's hard to get back on campus.
"Everyone there has been really gracious to me and my family in this process and been very helpful in all this so I can get this done."
At first, Hilliard tried to juggle coursework during the season. When that became too burdensome, he found time in the offseason to take classes online.
The experience has opened his eyes to new ways to reach players and younger people in search of guidance.
"It's another tool that I can use communicating with the boys, my little brothers in the room, and let them know that that platform can be used whether you are playing or not playing,'' he said. "The shelf life of an athlete is not very long.
"Don't be surprised if I do it against sometime soon with a master's."
Ike Hilliard, 1997 Sugar Bowl win over Florida State Fri, Jan 3, 1997 – 35 · Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Pinellas, Florida, United States of America) · Newspapers.com
