Hawkes Bob Image 5 Luton Town 1908

Description

Breachwood Green, Hertfordshire born outside left or left half Bob Hawkes played in Luton junior football and for local junior clubs Luton Stanley, Luton Victoria and Luton Clarence, and joined Southern League Luton Town as an amateur in 1901, taking ten years to turn professional in September 1911. He had been made club captain when Luton Town turned professional in 1905.

He became the first Luton Town player ever selected for England when he won his first cap against Ireland at Goodison Park in February 1907 and won 4 more caps in the space of seven days against Austria (twice), Hungary and Bohemia; all four matches resulted in comfortable victories for England in June 1908 when England toured Europe for the first time. Additionally he won 22 England Amateur caps between November 1906 and November 1910, scoring 4 goals and captaining the team on four occasions. However his most notable achievement was to be part of the 1908 Great Britain Olympic team that won the Gold Medal, with Hawkes playing all three matches and scoring twice in the opening match against Sweden.

He played both sides of the First World War and made his final appearance for The Hatters in 1919, and played the rest of the season with non league Bedford Town before retiring, having scored 40 goals in 349 League appearances for Luton Town, for whom he remains truly one of the great players in their history. He also represented Hertfordshire FA on four occasions. He remains Luton Town’s most capped England international.

He was not related to Luton’s Fred Hawkes, with whom he would have appeared on several hundred occasions.