Although Hawkins struggled academically, he excelled on the court for Brooklyn’s Boys High School. The team won two city titles and Hawkins earned Parade Magazine’s High School All-American accolades in 1960. Colleges were eager to recruit the 6’8” senior and he settled on the University of Iowa.
While there though, still only a teenager, his name was mixed up in a widespread point-shaving scandal. It’s a complex story, but Hawkins was never arrested, charged, or named as being involved. Simply knowing some who were was enough. Iowa kicked him out. No other college would touch him. Nor would the NBA.
Many neighborhood ballplayers back in Brooklyn shunned him. He cried often. All seemed hopeless. He felt he wasn’t good at anything besides basketball.
Fortunately, the American Basketball League (ABL) was about to have its first season in 1961 and they needed talent. Founded by Harlem Globetrotters owner Abe Saperstein, this eight-team league included a three-point shot and a 30 second shot clock.
Even potential players were skeptical though. When the newly minted Pittsburgh Rens' ownership drafted one college standout, he balked. “I’d like to play ball,” he said, “but I want to be realistic about the future.” He became an accountant.
As for Hawkins, he signed a contract for $6,500. “God don’t have this kind of money,” he thought.
This wasn’t Pittsburgh's first professional basketball team. In 1946, there was the Pittsburgh Ironmen — but that team ended with a dismal 15-45 record and folded after a year. The Rens did better, finishing the season 41-40, but the entire league folded the following season.
So, Hawkins joined Saperstein’s Harlem Globetrotters. For the next four years, he traveled with the team, making $125 each week while learning to really control the basketball confidently. “I had to learn to barnstorm,” he explained. These years greatly influenced his style.
He did a lot of growing up, too, marrying a woman named Nancy and starting a family in Pittsburgh. Lawyers Roslyn and David Litman, family of former Rens owner Lenny Litman, also filed a $6 million lawsuit against the NBA on his behalf. By 1966, he’d had enough globetrotting and returned to an uncertain future in Pittsburgh. He'd sleep in. He’d play some playground ball. He’d think about the NBA.
“It was the worst time of my life,” he’d recall.
An upstart league
Meanwhile, the American Basketball Association (ABA) was about to launch. Like the ABL, the ABA retained the three-pointer, kept the longer shot clock, and emphasized a faster-paced, flashier style of play.