Chip Hilton

rdf:langString Chip Hilton

rdf:langString Chip Hilton

rdf:langString United States of America

rdf:langString Sports

rdf:langString Volume 16

rdf:langString English

rdf:langString Print

rdf:langString William "Chip" Hilton is the central character in a series of 24 sports novels for adolescent boys written by the successful college basketball coach and 1968 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Clair Bee (1896–1983). In addition to Bee's authorship of the Chip Hilton series, he was also the author of several basketball and coaching technique books. The Chip Hilton series was published between 1948 and 1966 by Grosset & Dunlap, with Bee's last manuscript, Fiery Fullback, published in 2002. The series hero excels in football, basketball and baseball, and is often placed in the position of persuading his less-than-perfect teammates to play his way and share his values—with winning championships being the result. Stories have two or three subplots, sometimes unrelated to sports, and one title is distinguished for tackling racism. The Chip Hilton books sold 2.2 million copies, and, in 1997, the NCAA founded the Chip Hilton Player of the Year Award. In the late 1990s, the series was re-issued by a Nashville religious book publishing house with the co-operation of Bee's children. The original series is highly collectible, with some titles being worth hundreds of dollars.