The 24th annual Western Brown High School Track and Field Invitational was held on Monday, April 19, and the WBHS Athletic Department recognized retired Georgetown High School track coach and long-time official, Vern “Coach” Hawkins.
This marked the first year that Hawkins did not serve as an official during the WBHS Track & Field Invite, recently celebrating his 90th birthday.
Hawkins received a plaque from the WBHS Athletic Department for his many years of service as an OHSAA track and field official and former Georgetown High School coach. Presenting the plaque were WBHS Athletic Director Tim Cook, along with the WBHS boys track coach Chad Sexton and Western Brown Middle School running coach/OHSAA official Nathan Hauke.
Vern Hawkins has become a legend in Brown County for the decades he served as a cross country and track coach at Georgetown High School, earning him the nickname of “Coach” in Georgetown and surrounding communities. He began his career at Georgetown High School in 1958, where he coached in multiple sports and taught physical education, health, first aid and driver’s education for the next 33 years and coaching for 38 years.
Hawkins coached basketball during his first year at Georgetown, as the high school lacked a track and field team and cross country team, and he would play a key role in getting the two sports up and running in years that followed. Hawkins would go on to find great success as a running coach at Georgetown, but before Hawkins became a legend in the world of coaching he had already made a name for himself as a high school and collegiate runner, as well as a high school football player.
Hawkins attended Anderson High School in the late 1940s, and in 1949 he would break the school’s mile record with a time of 4:33, a record that stood until 1967 when it was broken by future Anderson coach and Hall of Fame inductee, Andy Wolf.
Anderson went on to name a race after Hawkins, dubbing it “The Vern Hawkins Mile.”
Hawkins would lead very successful careers in running sports and as a defensive end in football at Anderson High School, and would go on to find success as a collegiate runner at the University of Cincinnati in the 1950s.
Hawkins was among only the fifth group to be inducted into the Greater Cincinnati Running Hall of Fame six years ago.
When Hawkins began his athletic career as a runner at Anderson High School when it was a country school east of Cincinnati. He placed second in the state meet mile to Ed Hawkins of Beavercreek in 1949.
“Training was much different back then,” said Hawkins. “During practices we would run a couple of laps around the football field and go home.”
While attending the University of Cincinnati in the 1950s, Hawkins majored in education and ran on the cross country and track teams for coach Oliver Nikoloff. In some respects, Hawkins’ best results came immediately in his events of 440, mile, and cross country. Following his freshman cross country season, he led a crew of UC Bearcats to victory in the college team-scored 1950 Thanksgiving Day race in Cincinnati while topping a strong Miami team in the process. Hawkins placed second overall in the Thanksgiving Day Race with a time of 30:29 for a short six-mile course, losing only to a man from Denison University. It was one of his most memorable moments as a runner.
“I was only 19 at the time, so that was a big accomplishment,” Hawkins said of his performance in the 1950 Thanksgiving Day Race.
He tended to be first or second man in cross country for two years, also running frequently on the mile relay. His teammates included Don Wahle, Bob MacVeigh, Paul Geison, Ed Brown, Jack Ruck, Bill Steimer and Bob Briggs. After two years at UC, Hawkins served in the Navy for four years during the Korean War. He then returned to UC for his final two years of academics and athletics, graduating in 1958.
Hawkins credited much of his success that would come during his year’s of coaching to the many skilled runners he had the pleasure of coaching.
Bill Ellis was among the talented runners Hawkins coached in his early years at Georgetown. During his first year as a high school running coach in 1960, Ellis qualified for the OHSAA state championships in track.
“There were some great athletes (at Georgetown),” Hawkins said while reflecting on his year’s as a coach.
Hawkins and his G-Men had a streak in cross country from 1968-72 with teams that had state meet finishes of 2nd, 1st, 2nd, and 6th. Several individuals led the way for Georgetown over the years. In 1968, Nick Tsanges and Gary White placed 2nd and 4th in the state. In 1969 his G-Men were state champs. In 1970, Georgetown’s Mike Bends placed 2nd and Dan Lindsey finished 8th. A 2nd and 11th finish by Mike Becraft and Dan Lindsey, together with four in the top 18 in 1971, brought yet another runner-up finish for the team. Becraft finished 2nd again in 1972 as the G-Men finished 6th as a team. While the team did not qualify for state in 1973, Becraft was nonetheless the state champion, the first in Georgetown’s cross country history.
Hawkins’ track and field athletes were also tough competitors. Ricky Brown, a three-time sprint champion in 1971 with times of 10.0, 22.2 and 49.4, carried Georgetown to yet another runner-up finish in Ohio. Mike Becraft finished 2nd for three years in the mile and two mile, running a 4:22 his senior year. Larry Gardner, a farm boy who lifted hay rather than weights, threw 59’ to win the 1975 state meet. In 1990, Ed Johnson, Seth Meranda, Tony Watson and Erik Anderson took 1st in the state 4×800 while Josh Bowman, Kevin Grennan, Erik Anderson and Perry Jo Cahall finished 2nd in the 4×800 at the 1991 state meet. Grant Jones high jumped 6’ 10” in 1996, good for 3rd in the state.
Hawkins also coached boys basketball for two years and girls basketball from 1979-86, teams which featured Kelly Benintendi, who scored 2,385 points. To hold the all-time Southern Hills League scoring record until it was broken by Beau Justice, of Peebles High School, this past winter.
Hawkins has received a slew of awards and honors during his years as an athlete and coach that include numerous Southern Hills League Coach of the Year awards and being inducted into the Brown County Hall of Fame, the Anderson High School Hall of Fame (once for football and once for his accomplishments as a runner), the Georgetown High School Hall of Fame, and the OHSAA Hall of Fame.
Hawkins has an undying love for cross country and track and field, and you can expect to see him this fall at high school and junior high cross country meets throughout Brown County and surrounding areas.
While each of the many awards and honors Hawkins has received over the decades as a runner and coach, it’s the memorable experiences he’s had throughout his lifetime that he cherishes most.
Many of the athletes Hawkins coached return to visit him years after graduation, because he is always there for them. He said modestly, “It was lots of fun… a very good ride.”
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