Bob Hight attended Centralia Junior College, now Kaskaskia
College, from 1959-1960 lettering in baseball. After
graduation from Southern Illinois University where he attended on a
football scholarship, Bob signed with the Buffalo Bills in 1965,
spending a season on the taxi squad and was featured in Jeff
Miller’s published history of the Bills.
In 1966, Bob won a national field goal kicking competition
sponsored by the Dallas Cowboys, signed with that team, and kicked
a fifty-five yard field goal against the L.A. Rams. Bob
was kicker for the Rockford Rams, Central States Football League
from 1971-73, kicking the winning field goal in the league
championship in 1972, and held the league record for longest field
goal (55 yards) and most field goals in a season. In
1973, Bob played with the Oakland Raiders as a game time
replacement.
Bob’s coaching career included basketball and golf at
Effingham High School, Head Football Coach and Athletic Director at
Crystal Lake South High School in Crystal Lake and Offensive
Coordinator at Aurora University before retiring in 1994. Bob was
named Head Coach of the East Team for the Illinois Shrine All-Star
game in Bloomington and Northern Illinois Coach of the Year in
1982, 1984 and 1986.
After retirement, Bob returned to the game of
golf. In 2008, Bob returned to the links volunteering
with the National Amputee Golf Association. Bob was the 2010 Arm
Amputee Champion of the Eastern Amputee Golf Association Regional
Championships in Pennsylvania and in September 2009, he tied for
10th in the North American One-Arm Golf Association World
Championships in West Palm Beach, Florida.
