LARRY HAWKINS | 1931-2009

Larry Hawkins discovered Cazzie Russell in a gym class and groomed him into one of the greatest basketball players ever produced in Chicago. But friends and colleagues think Hawkins’ legacy was making an impact on thousands of young lives and preaching that athletics are an important part of education.

Hawkins coached Carver High School to second place in the 1962 state tournament and to the state championship in 1963 before becoming the director of the University of Chicago’s Office of Special Programs and the founder of the Institute for Education and Athletics. He died Friday at 77 after a long illness.

‘‘He taught me to play the game from the floor up,’’ said Russell, who was the college player of the year at Michigan in 1966, played in the NBA for 12 seasons and now is the coach at Savannah (Ga.) College of Art and Design. ‘‘He was a disciplinarian. If you didn’t go to class, you didn’t play for him. He didn’t want instructors to think you were a jock. He taught me foundation, work ethic, priorities, that there are no shortcuts to success.’’

Hawkins grew up on the South Side, near 30th and Prairie. His family was poor and on welfare. His father died when he was 11. He attended Phillips High School, Wilson Junior College and George Williams College. He sold newspapers, shined shoes and worked as a stock boy to make money.

He played with the old Brown Bombers, a spinoff of Abe Saperstein’s Harlem Globetrotters, under the name Hawk Washington. During barnstorming trips in the South, he saw people who needed help and vowed to teach kids how to cope with discrimination. Later, while coaching at Carver, he discovered how kids could use sports to achieve a better life.

‘‘I saw clearly what happened around sports, how it energized the school, kids, parents and the whole community,’’ Hawkins said. ‘‘You had to get the attention of hard-to-reach kids so you could counsel them. You have to start with kids where they are so you can understand where you want to take them.’’

In 40 years as an educator, through the Office of Special Programs, the IAE and Big Buddies Youth Services Inc., Hawkins and his staff annually taught, tutored and counseled hundreds of African-American youngsters.

Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas once asked Hawkins to become the Public League’s sports supervisor. He declined.

‘‘I’ve got kids I have to look after, kids who need me,’’ Hawkins said.

Ken Maxey, one of the leaders of Carver’s 1963 championship team, said Hawkins was ahead of his time in emphasizing academics to athletes and talking about the importance of athletics in the educational process.

‘‘If you counted up the number of people he impacted and directed to college, there would be more than anyone else in Chicago — and there were more non-athletes than athletes,’’ Maxey said. ‘‘He sent kids to black colleges but also to schools such as Illinois, Michigan, Harvard, Yale and Cornell.’’

Maxey, now a career counselor at Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles, said Hawkins taught more than basketball.

‘‘He taught us a way to deal with the cruel world at that time, when we were coming out of Altgeld Gardens,’’ Maxey said. ‘‘He taught us a sense of striving for excellence, to put your heart into whatever you did.’’

Funeral arrangements are pending.