Mike Hull (fullback)

Mike Hull

No. 23,33, 25
Date of birth	(1945-11-02) November 2, 1945
Place of birth	La Crescenta, California
Career information
Position(s)	Fullback
College	Southern California
NFL draft	1968 / Round: 1 / Pick: 16
Career history
As player
1968-1970	Chicago Bears
1971-1974	Washington Redskins
Career stats
Playing stats at NFL.com Playing stats at DatabaseFootball.com

Michael Bruce Hull (born April 2, 1945) is a retired American football fullback that played in the National Football League.

College career

Hull played college football at the University of Southern California and was one of five USC Trojans players taken in the first round of the 1968 NFL Draft after his senior year.

                                    CVHS Hall of Fame/Mike Hull Biography

Mike started his football career at 14 yrs old on the bench, as a reserve offensive tackle for Clark Junior H.S., which is now Crescenta Valley High School/ “CVHS”. After failing at basketball, baseball and tennis, 1960, at 15, Mike started running track as all other sports failed him. He ended that spring winning the 100 and 220 yard dashes, the long-jump, and “Athlete of the Meet” for Clark Jr. High, at the Glendale Unified School District “Junior Olympics”. It was the first athletic competition he had ever won. Up to then he was considered too tall, skinny, nice and uncoordinated to do much of anything.

When the Clark ninth grade class became the first sophomore, tenth grade, and the oldest class at CVHS, somebody must have noticed his speed on the team, as Mike was moved from on-the-bench, reserve tackle, to starting tight-end, and defensive end, as #82, for the Falcon’s 1960, infamous, inaugural junior varsity team. He played essentially every minute of every game for that first Falcon football team, while catching a grand total of three passes, for about 100 yds, on a team of all sophomores. Those Falcon warriors pretty much got their butts kicked each game playing against upperclassmen, including seniors, from other schools. They won one game, blown out in six other games their first year.

In Mike’s junior year, as the Falcon team began its first year of varsity football, facing other teams that played with seniors, Mike was moved to tailback by Head Coach Gary Hess, in the Falcon’s single-wing offense, wearing jersey #14. Quite surprisingly, as the Falcons had won few games in those early years, and nothing much exciting had ever happened, other than a bunch of fine young men fighting for their lives, Mike returned the opening kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown the first time he touched the ball in a varsity regular season game. The Falcons tied that first varsity game against powerhouse Magnolia High; Mike gained 142 yards rushing on just ten carries, not including his kickoff return. We think it was the first kickoff returned for a touchdown in Falcon varsity football history.

The Falcons started winning football games, including the first CVHS vs. Hoover game in 1961, winning the inaugural but now 47-year-old “Gold Helmet” trophy, by beating Hoover 26-14. This was a huge event in the Falcons’ storied football history, indeed, as if David had once again knocked off Goliath. That win is one of Mike’s fondest football memories. He had 30 carries in that first Hoover win, for a total of 191 yds. rushing.  And, in the last game of his junior year, a 2-5-1 season, our Falcons beat another venerable powerhouse and CIF playoff team, Crespi High; in that win, Mike had a total of 246 yds. rushing on 16 just carries, with five touchdowns.  Hull and Falcons were beginning to step up.

By his senior year at CVHS Mike earned First Team All-League honors, amassing over 1000 yards total offense. In the last game beating Burbank HS, Mike had 137 yds. rushing, on 20 carries, with just 70yds passing. The single wing was not much of a passing offense in those days at CVHS.  The Falcon’s first full varsity season ended with a 5-3 record, and a bunch of rough and tough players ready to take on most any challenge in life. 

Mike also ran the high and low hurdles, long jumped and ran the relays on the Falcon track team. At the close of his career at CVHS Mike was also the Student Body President, and held every Falcon varsity football rushing and total offense record. He also held school records, in spite of nagging hamstring injury, in Track and Field, the high and low hurdles, and the long jump (those days called the broad-jump).

He was recruited by, among others, Oregon, UCLA, USC, Colorado and Washington. He decided to start locally at Glendale College and gain some experience in the T-formation, where Mike matured into a versatile fullback/halfback. He was named the offensive MVP Running Back, and All-Conference, on Glendale’s Western Conference Championship Bowl team, before heading to the University of Southern California in the spring to run track as a Trojan freshman. His father, Bruce, #67, was a starting offensive and defensive tackle for Glendale HS, Glendale College and at USC in 1934 and 1935.

As a Trojan, #23 on Coach John McKay’s roster, Mike converted to full-time fullback, working himself into a starting role for the Trojans for three years. Mike was the starting fullback for USC, playing on two Rose Bowl teams and the 1967 USC National Championship Team. In between his sophomore year blocking for Heisman Trophy winner, Mike Garrett, and his senior year blocking for future Heisman winner OJ Simpson, Mike led the USC Rose Bowl team in rushing avg. with 6.7 yds. per carry, winning the “Roy Bullet Baker” award as the Trojan’s Most Valuable back. Mike was also selected as the Most Valuable Player in the USC vs. UCLA game, while rushing for 147 yds on 14 carries against the Bruins.

Mike was then drafted in the First Round of the NFL draft by the Chicago Bears and Papa Bear George Halas, where he wore #33. He was the 16th player in the whole country picked in the 1968 NFL draft. He played for the Bears for three years, suffering through the Brian Piccolo tragedy, though helping All Pro and future Hall of Famer Gale Sayers, as the lead blocker; earn the NFL rushing title in 1969.

In 1971 Mike was traded, for three players, to the Washington Redskins, and Coach George Allen’s historic NFL “Over-the-Hill-Gang”. Now wearing #25, he played in 86 consecutive games, with the Redskins, over five NFL seasons, six NFL playoff games, the NFL Championship and the Super Bowl, where he was a Special Teams leader.

After seven years in the NFL Mike started his law school education at Georgetown University Law Center, in Washington D.C., earning his Juris Doctor degree in 1979. Mike was an Assistant Corporation Counsel for the District of Columbia, and then became an Assistant US Attorney for the USA, a Prosecutor for the United States. He met his wife Connie, then a lawyer representing the NFL, married and had a daughter, Michelle. After 20 years in the East as a professional football player, law student and lawyer, he moved back with Connie and Michelle to his beloved Southern California, where his son, Thomas, was born. His other son, Ernie, from a prior marriage, graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, has his Masters from Pepperdine University and two boys.

Mike now resides in San Clemente, California with wife Connie and their daughter Michelle, who graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University and top of her class at Columbia Law School, in New York. She is now a member of the California and New York Bars. Their son, Thomas, who also graduated Harvard, and was three year starting punter on the Harvard University Ivy League Championship football team, winning Ivy League Titles in both 2007 and 2008, and a second in 2009; Thomas punted for over 4,700 yds. for the Crimson, often winning Ivy League Honors; he

Professional career

Hull played for the Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins between 1968 and 1974.