Hall of Fame
Football (1977-80)
The only Nevada player to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, Frank “The Hawk” Hawkins finished his career as the Wolf Pack’s all-time rushing leader and the NCAA’s third all-time rushing leader with 5,333 career yards. Even 40+ years after he left the Wolf Pack program, he still ranks in the top 20 in the NCAA. He led the NCAA I-AA in rushing in his junior and senior seasons and set the national mark for rushing for 100 yards or more in 21 consecutive games.
Hawkins started his football career at Western High School in Las Vegas where he earned all-league, all-state and All-America honors. He also won two state wrestling championships at 158 pounds. He dreamed of playing football at the University of Southern California but ultimately decided to play for Nevada and fellow Hall of Famer head coach Chris Ault when other schools didn’t see the potential in Hawkins because of his size.
As a freshman in 1977, Hawkins started slowly, gaining 486 yards and scoring two touchdowns. He broke out as a sophomore, earning All-America honors for the first time from the Associated Press after rushing for 1,445 yards and 15 touchdowns. He led the nation in rushing and repeated as an AP All-American the next two seasons with 1,683 yards and 13 TDs in 1979 and 1,719 yards and nine scores in 1980. His best game came in 1978 when he rushed for 293 yards on 27 carries with two touchdowns, a mark that still ranks third on Nevada’s single-game rushing list. Hawkins still holds Nevada’s career rushing record at 5,333 yards and appears numerous times in nearly every single-season and career list for rushing and scoring. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997 and had his 27 jersey number retired by the Wolf Pack.
After graduating with his degree in criminal justice, Hawkins was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in the 1981 NFL Draft and played for seven seasons in the NFL. He earned a Super Bowl ring in 1984 and rushed for 1.635 yards in his professional career.
Following his football career, Hawkins returned to his hometown and became a civic leader in Las Vegas. He became the first elected Black official in the city when he served on the Las Vegas City Council and was a board member for the Las Vegas Housing Authority. From 2008-15, he served as the President of the Las Vegas branch of the NAACP and builds affordable housing in low-income neighborhoods in the community in which he grew up.
