Isaiah Hillman on Sunday walked out of the tunnel at halftime of the Broncos’ game proudly wearing his father’s old No. 23 jersey.

Throughout the Broncos’ 33-32 win against the New York Giants at Empower Field at Mile High Stadium, Isaiah also wore a ring from Denver’s Super Bowl 50 win in the 2015 season. He was loaned the ring for much of the day by Juwan Thompson, who was on that team and was very close to Isaiah’s late father, fellow running back Ronnie Hillman.

Hillman was the leading rusher for the 2015 Broncos, who held a 10-year reunion over the weekend. He died on Dec. 31, 2022 at the age of 31 from renal medullary cardinoma, a rare form of kidney cancer.

In addition to introducing the 2015 team at halftime, the Broncos during Alumni Weekend inducted wide receiver Demaryius Thomas, a star receiver on that team who died in 2021 from a seizure, into their Ring of Fame. They also honored Hillman, which included having a video tribute to him during the game.

Hillman in 2015 ran for a career-high 863 yards and seven touchdowns, one on a 72-yard jaunt against the Minnesota Vikings. As part of the weekend festivities, the Broncos paid for six who were a part of his family to come to Denver. That included Isaiah, 14, who plays football and runs track at First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach, Va., to represent his father throughout the weekend.

“It was something that he would have wanted me to do,’’ Isaiah told The Denver Gazette on Tuesday. “It was very emotional. I was very nervous at first because I’d never done anything like that before.”

Isaiah, though, soon felt at ease after talking to players from the team that defeated the Carolina Panthers 24-10 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 7, 2016. He said Hall of Fame outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware “prayed over me.” He said he talked to Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning “a little bit and he was very cool.” He called it “amazing” getting to wear Thompson’s ring.

During the halftime ceremonies, when Emmanuel Sanders, also a star receiver in 2015, talked about Thomas to the fans, standing behind him were the six guests the Broncos brought in to honor Hillman. All wore No. 23 Broncos jerseys with “Hillman” on the back.

Also coming in from Virginia was Elyssia Felix, Isaiah’s mother. Having arrived from Atlanta were Hillman’s mother Carla Mitchelle and sister Cherelle Hillman. Coming in from the San Francisco Bay Area were Tiffany Hillman, who said she raised Hillman in a “blended family” in Los Angeles and that she is his “bonus mom,” and Hillman’s brother Tevin-Isaiah Hillman.

“I am so grateful the Broncos brought us out,’’ said Tiffany Hillman. “It was priceless. We heard a lot of great stories about (Hillman).”

Hillman played for the Broncos from 2012-15, rushing for 1,845 yards, before finishing his five-year NFL career with the Vikings and San Diego Chargers in 2016. Tiffany said many of the stories she heard over the weekend didn’t have to do with football.

“We met a (Broncos) staff member whose wife was going through breast cancer,’’ Tiffany said about when Hillman was with the team. “(Hillman) gave him the cancer towel that the players had gotten (during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October). He said she has beaten cancer and still has the towel to this day. (The staff member) was saying how nice (Hillman) was in checking on her and asking questions, and that he was generally concerned. He said what a great guy he was.

“There were fans in the stands who asked Isaiah for his autograph and were saying they miss (Hillman) so much and they were praying for the family. There were a lot of heartfelt things.”

Tiffany Hillman during the weekend thanked Manning for “such a blessing” of having paid $10,000 after Hillman died to help pay for funeral expenses. She singled out linebacker Brandon Marshall, whom she said “has a special place in my heart” and who “was right there with us” when Hill died in Atlanta.

“Ronnie was my guy,’’ Marshall said. “I went to go see him in hospice. It was definitely a sad sight to see. I wanted to be there for him and his family in that time. Having lost Demaryius and Ronnie is just tragic. … It was extremely tough (seeing Hillman) for the last time. I wanted him to know that he had a brother that was there for him.”

Tiffany Hillman said the death of Hillman remains “very tough” for her. She said he had been misdiagnosed in the spring of 2022 before the rare form of cancer was uncovered in August. He died later that year after losing a significant amount of weight.

“It was really tough,’’ Isaiah said of his father dying. “It was one of the worst things to have happened in my life. It was hard to see him go from big to small. I held his hand (before he died) but he couldn’t talk.”

Isaiah was one month shy of turning 6 when the Broncos beat the Panthers in the Super Bowl. Hillman, who was reduced to a backup role in the playoffs behind C.J. Anderson, played just eight snaps in the game and had five carries for no yards. But he celebrated plenty after the win.

“I remember when the confetti was coming down, he was rolling around in it like it was snow,’’ Isaiah said.

Isaiah, in his first season of playing tackle football, is a running back, linebacker and kick returner, on the junior varsity as a sophomore. He excels in track, and noted that as a freshman he had the fastest time in the region in the 400 meters at 52.02 seconds.

“I get most of my speed from my dad,’’ Isaiah said.

Isaiah called his father “a great man” and said players from the 2015 team praised his character throughout the weekend. He was told Hillman “lit it up” every time he walked into a room.

“I loved Ronnie,’’ said Ryan Harris, a tackle on the team. “He was just a great dude. When somebody was getting made fun of in the locker room, he would go stand next to them (and defend them). On the field, he had incredible speed and vision.”

Harris was among about 15 former Broncos teammates to attend Hillman’s funeral in Los Angeles. He said his death “really hurt” and there were “a lot of tears.”

After the Super Bowl 50 win, Hillman was released by the Broncos before the start of the 2016 regular season. He got into just eight more NFL games, rushing for just 131 yards with the Vikings and Chargers.

“It was a very hurtful thing to win the Super Bowl and not being kept by the Broncos and then not having a home (in the NFL),’’ Tiffany Hillman said about Hillman being “very disappointed” he couldn’t find continued work in the NFL and that it remained a “struggle” for him.

But a decade after Denver won the third Super Bowl in team history, Tiffany Hillman was overwhelmed by the support the Broncos showed the late running back’s family. At an event Saturday night at the stadium, jerseys were prominently on display of No. 88 for Thomas and No. 23 for Tillman. Manning and then Broncos coach Gary Kubiak both mentioned Hillman in remarks during the weekend.

“It was just an emotional weekend, and just being able to see the actual Super Bowl trophy and taking pictures with it,’’ said Tiffany Hillman, who attended her first Broncos game since Super Bowl 50.

It was especially emotional seeing Isaiah wearing No. 23 alongside his father’s former teammates.

“My grandson had an amazing weekend and got to step in the shoes of his dad,’’ she said.

He also got to wear a Super Bowl 50 ring throughout the game.