Early years In 1940 at the age of 15, Hawke played first grade for the Queanbeyan Blues rugby league team and
Queanbeyan Tigers Australian football team. 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. ==References==