Billy Kilmer is a member of the New Orleans Saints’ Hall of Fame and is also one of the best remembered players for the Washington football team. Photo: neworleanssaints.com.
RELATED: 2019-20 Grid-Hoop All-State Teams
This is a post for Gold Club members only on CalHiSports.com. All of our annual preseason all-section, all-county and all-region football teams are being delayed in getting done until late November at the earliest. All of those posts will be for Gold Club members only, but we’ll have plenty more Gold Club coverage in football and boys basketball until then. Not to mention, we’ve just put all of our boys basketball state records onto the site for Gold Club members. You can now join for one-month rate of just $3.99. For subscription info, CLICK HERE.
We became interested in trying to figure out this list after updating all of our boys basketball state records and wondering if one player in particular might end up in the first position. We think he does. That player is longtime NFL quarterback Billy Kilmer, who also happens to be the first California high school boys basketball player to score 900 points for one season and 1,900 points for his career.
There are a couple of those on the list who didn’t go on to do that much in the NFL or NBA, but what these athletes did beyond high school was definitely considered when compiling the list. It was also fun since we’ve met several of those we were ranking and writing about.
Looking up information on some of those in these rankings proved to be easier than others so that was a factor in putting some in the first 10 and others just mentioned below.
Regardless, enjoy and be sure to let us know what you think in the comments below.
(Thanks to managing editor Ronnie Flores, who usually is the one who picks our Grid-Hoops all-state teams each year, for providing input on these rankings and teams.)
1. Billy Kilmer (Citrus, Azusa)
The three-sport athlete in high school is in the state record book as the 1956-57 State Athlete of the Year. Basketball was arguably his best sport and he could legitimately be called a prep sensation of his day. Kilmer is indeed the first player in state history to score 900 points for one season (averaged more than 25 ppg) and set a state record for career scoring with 1,901 points. Later on, after going to UCLA, Kilmer played quarterback in the NFL for many years. He had more than 20,000 career yards, helped the Washington football team get to the Super Bowl for the first time in 1973 and was all-pro twice.
