Sports

Mercer Receives $1 Million Commitment for Basketball Program

The university's arena in Macon will now be known as Hawkins Arena in honor of the gift from cardiologist Dr. Chuck Hawkins and his wife Kathy.

A $1 million gift from Macon cardiologist Dr. Chuck Hawkins and his wife, Kathy, to benefit the basketball program is being recognized with the naming of the arena housed within a portion of the University Center.

Mercer President William D. Underwood announced at last Saturday's Big Bear Event – an annual athletic department fundraiser and student-athlete recognition ceremony – that the gift from the Hawkins family is being recognized with the naming of the UC arena as Hawkins Arena, in honor of Hawkins' late father, effective immediately. The gift will be used to enhance Mercer athletic facilities.

Hawkins' father, J.B. Hawkins, was the longtime boys and girls basketball coach at Crawford County High School and was the fourth-winningest high school basketball coach in Georgia history.

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"The generous investment in our basketball facilities by Chuck and Kathy Hawkins is a tremendous boost for our players, coaches and fans and will ensure that Mercer basketball continues its path toward competing at the highest levels," Underwood said. "These funds will enable us to make one of the finest venues in the country for watching college basketball even better."

Hawkins said he had the good fortune to meet President Underwood about three years ago and immediately realized they had in common a passion for quality basketball and academic excellence.

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"When my dad coached the girls," Hawkins jokingly said, "he had the three 'Bs' to abide by – books first, basketball second and boys third."

In 32 years of coaching, J.B. Hawkins found time to lead both the boys' and girls' programs at Crawford County High School in Roberta where he won an amazing 1,074 games. He was named to the "Thousandaire Club" by the Atlanta Tipoff Club for winning more than 1,000 games. Coaching the girls for 28 years, the Lady Eagles' record was 425-287 and the boys' teams were an eye-popping 649-293. His son, Chuck, was among the starters on the 1969 Crawford County boys’ state championship team. Over the course of his career, Coach Hawkins took 19 Crawford County teams to the Georgia High School tournament. The Eagles also came in second place twice in 1960 and 1963. His two most famous players were Kenny "Sky" Walker in 1982, who went on to star at the University of Kentucky and professionally with the New York Knicks, and John Matthews in 1960, who played at the University of Georgia.

In addition to his passion for coaching basketball, Coach Hawkins, who died last year, taught math and coached baseball and track. He was named Crawford County athletic director in 1980.

In 1999, Crawford County High School named its athletic complex the J.B. Hawkins Sports Complex. Additionally, Crawford County's annual Christmas basketball classic was named the J B. Hawkins Christmas Tournament.

Mercer’s University Center opened its doors in 2004. The initial event in the University Center Arena was the men’s basketball game against Georgia State University on Jan. 27, 2004. Since then, in addition to all of the men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball home games, the UC Arena has hosted the Atlantic Sun Conference Basketball Championships the past three years and, in previous years, the Atlantic Sun Conference Volleyball Championships twice. This year the first-ever post-conference tournament games were played in the arena when the Bears hosted first- and second-round games in the post-season Collegeinsider.com Tournament against Tennessee State and Georgia State. The arena is also the venue for the Macon undergraduate, law and medicine commencements and other such premier events as the Executive Forum, Tip-Off Banquet and First Pitch Classic. It is also used during the academic year for other significant events.

A formal presentation for the renaming of the arena will be announced at a later date.


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