Alex Hawkins

Clifton Alexander Hawkins (July 2, 1937 – September 12, 2017) was an American professional football player who played professionally as a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Baltimore Colts and Atlanta Falcons. He excelled as a special teams player and was a special teams co-captain with the Colts, the first special teams player with this distinction.

Early life Born in Welch, West Virginia in 1937 to Nathan and Lula Hawkins, Hawkins graduated from South Charleston High School in 1955. He was its first student to letter in four sports. He was the most valuable player, and a captain, in his West Virginia high school football All-Star game.

College career Hawkins received 23 college basketball scholarship offers, and five football scholarship offers including one from the University of South Carolina, where he ultimately attended college. He also kicked 48 extra points.

Overall, he rushed for 1,491 yards, had 1,761 total rushing and receiving yards, and completed 61% of his passes for 413 yards.

NFL career The Green Bay Packers selected Hawkins as the thirteenth player overall in the 1959 NFL draft, in the second round, but he was released in mid-September by first-year head coach Vince Lombardi. nearly two months before Lombardi was hired. Hawkins was picked up by Baltimore Colts, and they repeated as NFL champions his rookie season, defeating the New York Giants in the title game in Baltimore. and was then selected in the expansion draft of 1966 by the newly created Atlanta Falcons. After the third game of his second year with the Falcons, he was traded back to the Colts, where he finished the final two years of his career.

Former NFL player and college headcoach Bill Curry, both an opponent and teammate of Hawkins, described him as a great special teams player and "a great locker room guy, great for morale...." He also returned punts and kickoffs. He was the Associated Press Player of the Week in week 9 of the 1964 season. Hawkins received a game ball in October 1967 for catching the winning touchdown pass in a game against Washington.

Hawkins was arrested during a traffic stop a few days after the championship game,

Hawkins recalled being fired four times by television executive Bob Wussler (who had worked for CBS and was a founder of TBS) from various broadcast jobs: "'I've been fired four times by Bob Wussler. .... Why he persists in hiring me, I have no idea.'"

Death After battling dementia for several years, Hawkins died at HarborChase Assisted Living and Memory Care in Columbia, South Carolina on September 12, 2017, at the age of 80. After his career, Hawkins had advocated for NFL players being financially covered by the "88 Plan", which provided funds annually to retired players requiring medical or custodial care from conditions like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases.