Virgil Hill Receives Rough Rider Award in Bismarck

BISMARCK, N.D. (KVRR) — Tonight is the night that world champion boxer Virgil Hill becomes a Rough Rider.

Gov. Doug Burgum presenting the Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award, the state’s highest award, to Hill during a ceremony at Bismarck Event Center.

It’s a place where Hill fought several memorable boxing matches.

“To us, Virgil, you’ve always exemplified the best qualities of North Dakotans: tough, brave, determined, durable, resilient, generous, grateful, humble, and like many of us, immensely proud to call North Dakota home,” Burgum said.

“For those of you and those of us who lived through the 1980s and 90s … the name Virgil Hill is synonymous with boxing,” Burgum said, noting that 27 of Hill’s 58 professional fights were in North Dakota. “Wherever he went, Virgil was first and foremost a North Dakotan, a true ambassador of our state, proudly carrying our blue flag with its eagle with outstretched wings into the ring.”

Hill was raised in Grand Forks and Williston and won a silver medal in the middleweight division during the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

He was a five-time world champion and was a first-round inductee into both the National Boxing Hall of Fame and International Boxing Hall of Fame.