NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

We all know Eddie Hill as the gray-haired and bearded "Texan" who broke records on the dragstrip like records were going out of style, but there was an Eddie Hill that none of us knew before that. His wife, Ercie, was kind enough to open up the family scrapbooks and share these precious photos (and captions) of "the Fourfather" before he became "the Texan" we all know and love. I didn't have room for them in the original article, but they were too good not to share.

Eddie on a tricycle as a youngster

(Ercie didn't supply a caption for this, but this is clearly the first of many bones Eddie would break)

Eddie with his parents, Dr. James Hill Sr. and Evelyn Hill, with Eddie driving his goat cart

Eddie making money by delivering newspapers on three routes riding the Cushman motor scooter on which he won his first race trophy. (Phil note: Eddie apparently already knew how to draw the chicks)

Eddie's first motorized vehicle — a Doodle Bug motor scooter. He rode to school starting in the first grade. He is holding his sister Key on his lap.

Eddie’s first Indian motorcycle

Eddie’s first car, a '34 Ford three-window coupe.

Here's Eddie’s '39 Ford; he removed the original flathead engine and installed an Oldsmobile overhead valve V-8. That's also his 1928 Indian Scout motorcycle, It was originally 45 cubic inches, but he installed a 1948 Indian Chief 80-cubic-inch engine in it. His sister Key is also in picture. Eddie rode this motorcycle back and forth all four years to Texas A&M at College Station from his home in Longview, Texas. The motorcycle is still on display at our dealership in Wichita Falls, exactly as he rode it then.

Eddie doing a hill climb on his first Indian motorcycle

Eddie motorcycle racing at Oklahoma City quarter-mile dirt oval. He won more than 100 trophies in motocross, short track, hare scrambles, cross country, endurance, drag racing, indoor short track, dirt eighth-mile short track, quarter-mile dirt track, half-mile dirt track, and one-mile dirt track. He finished in the money at the AMA Daytona 100 Miler. In 1973, he twice won the Texas State Stock Production class in road racing, once on a Honda, and once on a Kawasaki, both brands we still sell at our dealership.

Our wedding day (Valentine’s Day, 1984) with the Lola Can Am car in which we took a victory lap around Wichita Falls, led by policemen on Kawasaki police bikes that we had sold to the local police department through our dealership.

Us with 229-mph drag boat, which was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for 11 years as the world’s fastest propeller-driven boat.

Us currently at Eddie Hill Day in Wichita Falls, which is same day I was blessed to win Best Abstract in a museum art contest.