Tommy Hawkins, who was the first black basketball player to earn All-America honors at Notre Dame and who played for the Los Angeles Lakers during a 10-year N.B.A. career, died on Wednesday at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 80.
His son Kevin told The Associated Press that Hawkins had died in his sleep, adding that he had been in good health.
Hawkins graduated from Notre Dame in 1959 after playing three years on the basketball team. He had 1,318 career rebounds for the university, the longest-standing record in Fighting Irish history.
He was named to Notre Dame’s All-Century team in 2004 and inducted into its Ring of Honor in 2015. He led the Irish to a 44-13 record over his last two seasons, including an Elite Eight berth in the 1958 N.C.A.A. Tournament.
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He was a consensus All-American player in 1958 and 1959.
"He loved Notre Dame with every fiber of his being," said Kevin Hawkins, who followed in his father's footsteps and played basketball for the Irish before graduating in 1981.
Hawkins became close with the Rev. Theodore S. Hesburgh, the university’s president from 1952-87. Kevin Hawkins said Hesburgh had been supportive after Hawkins and a white woman he was dating, from nearby Saint Mary's College, were turned away from a restaurant near the Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Ind. The restaurant had refused to serve an interracial couple.
Father Hesburgh responded by barring Notre Dame students from eating at the restaurant “until my father got a public apology," Kevin Hawkins said by phone from his home in South Bend. The university’s support “meant the world to him," Kevin Hawkins said of his father.
He said that Paul Hornung, his father's basketball teammate and a future National Football League Hall of Famer, led Hawkins back to the restaurant to get the apology.
Hawkins was selected by the Minneapolis Lakers with the third pick in the first round of the 1959 N.B.A. draft. He played one season in Minnesota before moving with the team to Los Angeles. He went on to play six seasons for the Lakers, averaging 9.0 points and 5.7 rebounds in 454 games.
A 6-foot-5 forward, Hawkins also played for the Cincinnati Royals from 1962-66. He recorded 6,672 points and 4,607 rebounds in his pro career.
Hawkins' influence continued beyond his playing days. As a player representative, he had a key role in establishing the first collective bargaining agreement with the players' union and the N.B.A.
Thomas Jerome Hawkins was born on Dec. 22, 1936, in Winston-Salem, N.C. He moved to Chicago with his mother and an aunt as a child. As a schoolboy player he starred at Parker High School, now Robeson High School, in Chicago before being recruited by Notre Dame.
Hawkins formed friendships with Alabama football coach Bear Bryant; U.C.LA basketball coach John Wooden; Southern California football coach John McKay; and the artist LeRoy Neiman.
Hawkins was hired in 1987 by the Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley to be vice president of communications, and he worked for the team until 2004. The Dodgers had a moment of silence for him before their game against the White Sox on Wednesday night.
Before joining the Dodgers, Hawkins worked in radio and television in Southern California, including stints with KNBC-TV and KABC radio.
Besides his son Kevin, from a first marriage that ended in divorce, he is survived by his second wife, Layla; their daughter, Neda; three other children from his first marriage, Karel, Traci and David; seven grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.
At his death, Hawkins was writing a memoir about his basketball career, Kevin Hawkins said.
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*Tommy Hawkins, the first African American basketball star at the University of Notre Dame, was born in Chicago, Illinois (December 22).
Thomas Jerome Hawkins (b. December 22, 1936, Chicago, Illinois – d. August 16, 2017, Malibu, California) was a 6'5" (1.96 m) forward who starred at Chicago's Parker (now Robeson) High School before playing at the University of Notre Dame, where he became the school's first African American basketball star. 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.
Hawkins later worked in radio and television broadcasting in Los Angeles and served as vice president of communications for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.
Hawkins died in his home in Malibu, California, on August 16, 2017.
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