Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? Hawkins said, laughing. "So he said, 'C'mon, we're going downtown, and we're going to get your apology and eat.' I got the apology and Father Hes- burgh took the restaurant off the list." On a trip to Lexington with the basketball team, Hawkins and team- mate Eddie Grayson were told they were welcome at a movie theatre but "blacks in the balcony, whites on the main floor." After some expletives from Grayson at the ownership, he hailed a cab and went to watch a movie with Hawkins in the black sec- tion of town where they could sit to- gether. "This was the kind of support I al- ways had at Notre Dame," Hawkins said. His best friend and roommate was point guard Gene Duffy — "I was never more coordinated with another man than Gene Duffy," he said — one of the many Irishmen, along with Jor- dan, O'Farrell, and teammates Bob Devine, John McCarthy and Mike Graney, who nurtured him while he in turn enhanced race relations. THE AMBASSADOR Hanging in the study of Hawkins' home in Malibu, Calif., is his "all-time favorite picture," one of Father Hes- burgh handing Hawkins his sociology degree from Notre Dame in June 1959. Meanwhile, hanging in Hesburgh's office is a framed free-verse narrative entitled "The House of Hesburgh" in Hawkins' 2012 released book: Life Re- flections Poetry for the People. The first print volume sold out and a second printing is being worked on. It reflects Hawkins' eclectic, Renaissance Man life. After a 10-year NBA career that ended with the Los Angeles Lakers — where he was the player represen- tative in labor relations — in 1969, he began his new career as a basketball analyst in Los Angeles, and soon he worked five years apiece next to two of the play-by-play titans in the in- dustry, Curt Gowdy and Harry Ka- las, experiences he treasured during his own Emmy-nominated radio and television broadcasting career. Not only did Hawkins cover the NCAA title game with Gowdy on NBC from 1971-74, but for 30 years he also be- came the master of ceremonies for the John Wooden Award that honors the nation's top basketball player. A few years ago, Hawkins received a call from the NCAA that they wanted to honor him in Anaheim. "I said, 'For what?'" Hawkins re- membered. "The guy said, 'You were the first black basketball analyst for NBC television.' My response was, 'I was?' I had become so integrated since my teen years that I never really thought in those terms." The father of five — son Kevin was a walk-on basketball player at Notre Dame from 1978-81 and is now a fed- eral mediator in Los Angeles — and grandfather of seven, Hawkins served as the vice president for communi- cations for the Los Angeles Dodgers for 18 years, and in his spare time on weekends he hosted a four-hour net- work jazz show. In addition, he was active as a partner in the Beverly Hills public relations and advertising firm,