Professional Football Player
Top NFL Wide Receiver in 1967
Benjamin Charles Hawkins was born in Newark, NJ in 1944. He attended Weequahic High School and Nutley High School. “The Hawk” began his ascent to professional football fame as a wide receiver and defensive end at Arizona State University. He was the first Sun Devil named to a major first team All-America squad selected by “Time Magazine” in 1965. He was also an All-Western Conference selection in the same year. During his final two seasons at Arizona State, he posted 78 receptions for 1,222 yards and nine touchdowns.
In 1966, he was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles and went on to become the top National Football League wide receiver in 1967. With nine seasons as a professional player to his credit, Hawkins played for the Eagles from 1966 through 1973. In 1974 he played for the Cleveland Browns. His career statistics include 4,764 yards receiving, 261 receptions and 32 touchdowns.
Strong work ethic and confidence were hallmarks of his games. Commenting on his first season with the Eagles Hawkins stated, “My first year was kind of bad. I was dropping balls and not doing what I was supposed to. Well, not necessarily not doing what I was supposed to be doing; I wasn’t catching balls. I finished out the year with something like 14 catches and a lot of drops. I couldn’t pinpoint it. I didn’t think I was doing anything that I hadn’t been doing before. It just sort of happened. I just knew that I was better than that. What I had shown them that year in ’66 and what they had brought me in to do, I said that hey, it’s water under the bridge. I just had to leave it at that and get back to doing the things that I knew that I could do.” (“Where Are They Now,” Jim Gehman, Philadelphia Eagles.com, 3/4/2006)
Returning for his second season he said, “We had a decent preseason and Norm (Snead) was throwing the ball pretty good. I just came in with the attitude that I was going to show everybody exactly what I could do.” And he did just that. He caught 20 passes for 534 yards and four touchdowns over three games in the first half of the season. Finishing the 1967 season leading the NFL with 1,265 yards on 59 receptions, this record remains third on Philadelphia/s all-time single-season record list. Hawkins continued, “There were a lot of veterans on the club and after the season was over they came up to me and they congratulated me on a good season and for doing my job.”(“Where” 2006)
In eight seasons with the Eagles, Hawkins did his job for four different head coaches and staffs. He said, “To me, if you look at it, you’re there to play and to do the things that you could do best. Football is football. It was just different philosophies. The only thing that is different is the terminology. You’ve just got to learn the terminology and do the same things.”
With his hallmark chinstrap unbuckled, Hawkins, number 18, explained, “Frank Kush was my coach (at Arizona State) and he didn’t let us take our helmets off during practices and it’s kind of hot out there. So I used to leave my chinstrap open so that I could lift my helmet up and get some air. I just got in a habit of doing that. When I got to playing (with the Eagles), nobody was after me about it, so I just let it hang. I had the helmet knocked off while catching a couple of passes and I scored a touchdown with my helmet off.” (“Where” 2006)