Johnny Hawke

Norman John "Johnny" Hawke (1925 – 10 January 1992) was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s, and 1950s. An Australian international and New South Wales interstate representative back, he played club football in the ACT as well as in Sydney for St. George Dragons, whom he captained and won a premiership with in 1949.

Background Hawke was born in Queanbeyan, New South Wales in 1925. At an early age, he displayed enormous sporting talent. Like many young sportsmen of the time, he played Australian rules football on Saturday and rugby league on Sunday.

During the 1950 Great Britain Lions tour, he was in the running for the Ashes series captaincy but injured his knee in the visiting team's tour match against New South Wales at the SCG which drew a record crowd of over 70,419 and made no further rep appearances that year. He made a career total of six state representative appearances for New South Wales and captained the side.

Hawke captained-coached St. George in the premiership seasons of 1951 and 1952, and in 1951 made his final test appearance during the 1951 France rugby league tour of Australia and New Zealand, also playig for Sydney and New South Wales against the French.. In 1952, he suffered a slipped disc that led to him being in plaster from neck to thighs. Injury led to his career at St. George being curtailed at the end of the 1952 NSWRFL season.

Later years Hawke left St. George to take a captain-coach role at Kyogle, New South Wales and the team won the premiership in his first year as coach. He left Kyogle to coach at Woy Woy. Hawke returned to Canberra in 1956.

Hawke died of Parkinson's disease on 10 January 1992 at the age of 66. He was married to Joan for 46 years. After his death, he was inducted into the Australian Capital Territory Sports Hall of Fame.