The Kankakee City Council chambers were filled with maize and blue Tuesday night.

These are not the city’s colors, but they are for the University of Michigan and one of Kankakee’s own is a member of the NCAA FBS National Championship squad.

University of Michigan freshman Jyaire Hill was honored with a city resolution by Mayor Chris Curtis and the city council as the first Kankakee graduate to win an FBS National Championship.

Hill, a Class of 2023 early graduate of Kankakee High School in December 2022, is the second area player to earn the distinction of being a national champion at college football’s highest level.

Woody Umphrey, a 1976 Bradley-Bourbonnais graduate, was the starting punter for the 1978 and 1979 title-winning teams at Alabama.

As a defensive back for the Wolverines this season, Hill played in four games and garnered eight total tackles, including four solo tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss. He was named the team’s freshman defensive Player of the Week in their season-opening 30-3 win against East Carolina. NCAA rules grant Hill an additional year of eligibility as a redshirt this season.

Winning championships aren’t new for Hill, who helped the Kays’ boys track and field team to the school’s second-ever team state championship when they followed the girls team’s IHSA Class 2A Track and Field State championship with one of their own in 2022. Hill served on the gold medal-winning 4-by-100-meter and 4-by-400-meter and second-place 4-by-200-meter relay teams.

On the football field with the Kays, where he became a four-star recruit by the time he committed to Michigan on National Early Signing Day his senior year, Hill helped lead the Kays to the program’s first-ever state championship game when the Kays went to the 2021 IHSA Class 5A State championship game his junior year.

Primarily a defender at cornerback and safety, the former all-state, Southland Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year and two-time Daily Journal All-Area pick totaled 23 total touchdowns, 10 interceptions, three forced fumbles and 597 rushing yards during his junior and senior seasons.

Combined with the COVID-19-shortened 2020-21 season he saw action in as a sophomore, the Kays compiled a 26-6 record, including an undefeated regular season that came with the program’s first-ever Southland Athletic Conference title on the way to the team’s 14-1 runner-up finish in 2021.