Officer Dick Hill knows the Arlington roads better than most ever will.
Over his 48 years as an officer in the Motorcycle Division, he estimates he drove at least 900,000 miles across North Texas and in the city.
In that time, he touched the lives of hundreds, or even thousands, in Arlington.
At the beginning of the new year, the man known by many as Motorcycle Mike made his final stop and parked his bike.
Hill said that he wanted to keep working through the summer for the World Cup and the Grand Prix of Arlington, but after injuries from his past required surgery, he knew it was time to hang up his helmet.
“I just said, ‘You know, it’s not worth it, leave while you’re on top,’” Hill said.
Hill, who grew up in Irving, first placed his stamp on Arlington when he joined the University of Texas at Arlington football team. He was a part of the 1967 team, which won the program’s first bowl game and a conference championship.
His efforts on the field led to a short-lived professional career that saw him join the Chicago Bears, the Philadelphia Eagles and Atlantic Coast League teams before retiring from football in 1971 due to a knee injury.
In 1973, Hill joined the Arlington Police Department.
Initially, he joined the tactical unit, which is now referred to as SWAT.
Officer Dick Hill circa 1973-1975. Hill was on the tactical team of the Arlington Police Department at the time. (Courtesy | Arlington Police Department/The Portal to Texas History)
Two years later, he submitted letters to join the motorcycle force and the undercover force. Hill said one of his superiors called him, saying he had to decide between the two.
“I thought that was pretty cool, the way I was really considered for both,” he said.
Hill ultimately chose to join the motorcycle force, saying he was worried that people would recognize him or confuse him with his brother.
“(My brother) would grow a beard, and people would walk up to him and call my name,” Hill said. “My thought was, there’s no way I can work undercover if people walk up to him and call my name and vice versa. Other than that, I don’t know that I really wanted to do it.”
A newspaper clipping shows police officer Dick Hill leading a motorcycle division training exercise in the 1980s. (Courtesy | Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Jerry W. Hoefer/The Portal to Texas History)
Hill estimates that some of the nearly a million miles he drove while working were on patrol, while others were driven while escorting celebrities, elected officials and professional athletes, he said.
The “Motorcycle Mike” mantra is one he picked up during the patrol miles, he said. Some of the drivers he pulled over had heard about a different police officer in North Texas called Motorcycle Mike, and one asked Hill if he was that man.
While he wasn’t the original Motorcycle Mike, that quickly became his nickname.
“It just kind of stuck,” Hill said.
One of his most memorable moments on patrol was when he pulled over a Tarrant County College student who had been going just over the speed limit.
“He’s sitting in the car super still, and I said, ‘You can relax, just relax,’” Hill said. “I said, ‘You know what today is?’ and he said, ‘No, sir.’ I said, ‘It’s your birthday,’ and he’s just looking at me. I said, ‘Today, you are getting a warning.’ Then he looked up at me with a big old grin; he had braces, and I’ll never forget it. He goes, ‘You are Motorcycle Mike, aren’t you?’”
Hill said the student went as far as asking if he could leave his car to give him a hug.
“I’m a hugger guy,” Hill joked.
Hill said he obliged and then sent the student on his way to his classes.
Connecting with people through kindness and having empathy for others were things he enjoyed doing as an officer, he said.
“There are so many times you deal with ugly people, and you’ve just got to put it out of your head,” Hill said. “The ones where you have a good rapport with people, and they appreciate the fact of what you’ve done, that’s worth more than anything, you know?”
In 2019, Hill’s wife died from colon and liver cancer. He said she passed on a Monday, and he returned to work that Wednesday.
“(My co-workers) said, ‘What are you doing here?’ and I said, ‘I’ve gotta work,’” he said.
Dick said that those around him, at work and at home, helped him through the tribulations of life.
His son, Cody Hill, said that Dick’s values and his work ethic were passed down from generation to generation.
“He grew up the oldest of five kids, and my grandmother was the single mother of five kids,” Cody said. “The value of a dollar means a lot to him. He would work and help provide for his four younger siblings, and so he had that kind of work ethic very early on in age.”
That same work ethic was passed from father to son.
Cody joined the Marines in 2007 and spent four years in the armed forces. When he left, he thought about joining his father at the Arlington Police Department.
Cody said the nepotism clause at the department blocked him from joining, which led him to the Arlington Fire Department.
“I was crash, fire and rescue in the Marines, which is where you’re pretty much a Marine, but you’re also a firefighter,” Cody said. “I had that kind of training, so I applied at several (Dallas-Fort Worth) fire departments.”
Since father and son were both out in the community and on calls, they crossed paths often, Cody said.
The intersection of their jobs culminated in their joint participation in a Texas Rangers’ First Responders night.
In 2023, Dick received a call from Maria Alvarado, the founder of the Peace Officers Angels Foundation, a nonprofit supporting law enforcement officers injured in the line of duty.
She asked him if he’d want to throw out the first pitch. After some hesitation, he agreed.
About a week later, she called him again to ask who he wanted his catcher to be.
“I didn’t want (Iván “Pudge” Rodríguez) and (Jonah) Heim was the other one,” Dick said. “She said, ‘Well, how about Cody Hill?’”
Cody said he had worked Rangers and Cowboys events, but never done anything of that magnitude.
According to Cody, Dick spent the seven weeks leading up to the game preparing, throwing to his grandchildren or a pitching machine.
“I didn’t want to throw one in the ground or throw an airball,” Dick said.
Cody still vividly remembers the scene when he walked out onto the field, side by side with his father: fans in the stands, an open roof at Globe Life Stadium and his father standing on the pitching mound, a step or two in front of the pitching rubber.
Chuck Morgan, known as “the voice of the Texas Rangers,” made the call for the first pitch.
“Now, Dick, throw the first pitch to your son Cody,” Cody recalled.
It was a perfect strike. Dick said the moment was an honor.
During the same year as the first pitch, Dick was diagnosed with sciatica. Around the same time, he had back surgery and knee surgery.
As he came closer to his second knee surgery in 2026, he knew it was time to retire, he said.
In January, he had his last call over the police radio and his retirement party. Cody said around 300 people showed up, from business owners, police officers and just normal people from around the community.
“It was just kind of a shock and awe moment,” Cody said. “All these people are here to see him. He touched so many people in a positive way.”
Cody said he hopes to have the same type of impact as his father.
“I can only hope to have that kind of effect on people,” Cody said.
Chris Moss is a reporter for the Arlington Report. Contact him at chris.moss@arlingtonreport.org.
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