Tom Hawkins (basketball)

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Thomas Jerome Hawkins (born December 22, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois; also known as Tom or Tommy Hawkins) is an American former professional basketball player.

A 6'5" forward, Hawkins starred at Chicago's Parker High School before playing at the University of Notre Dame, where he became the school's first African American basketball star and gained national recognition in 1958 for his 43-point game against the United States Air Force Academy [1]. He was then selected by the Minneapolis (later Los Angeles) Lakers in the first round of the 1959 NBA Draft, and he would have a productive ten-year career in the league, playing for the Lakers as well as the Cincinnati Royals as he registered 6,672 career points and 4,607 career rebounds.

He served as the Los Angeles Lakers player representative and was a member of the NBA players' labor negotiation team.

One of the Nation's leading eclectics, Tommy Hawkins recently (this was entered on 7/2007) completed 18 years with the Los Angeles Dodgers serving as both Vice President of Communications and of External Affairs. In those capacities, Hawkins coordinated publicity, public relations, broadcasting, publications, community and governmental affairs.

After completing a 10-year career in the National Basketball Association, Hawkins spent 19 years as a local and national television and radio broadcaster. He co-hosted Mid-Morning Los Angeles on KHJ-TV for six years and Daybreak L.A. on KABC-TV for two years. Hawkins was also a sports anchor for four years on KNBC-TV, where he earned a Golden Mike Award as a member of the 5 o'clock new team. He was a network basketball analyst with Curt Gowdy and Jim Simpson for a 5-year period covering NCAA basketball. During his 14 years at KABC radio he served as sports director and created Dodger Forecast, Dodger Confidential and Baseball Spotlight. While there, he hosted Sports Talk and Dodger Talk.

During his spare time on weekends, Hawkins hosted a four hour network jazz show on KKGO FM radio.

In business and education, Hawkins was active as a partner in the Beverly Hills public relations and advertising firm, Bishop, Hawkins and Associates. Somehow he also found time to teach "Mass Media and the History of the Black Athlete" at Cal State Long Beach.

A leader in the community, Hawkins is a member of the Board of Directors of the Center Theater Group, Los Angeles Sports Council, Children's Burn Foundation, and Friends of Jazz at UCLA. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the California State Long Beach Graduate School of Sports Management, as well as Pepperdine University's Sports Advisory Board.

As of this writing (7/07) he hosts the Saturday 9 am - 2 pm slot on Los Angeles jazz station KJZZ (88.1 FM), where he refers to himself as "Hawk."


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