Bill Hawkins was a three-year starter as a center and linebacker at Etowah High School from 1944 to 1946.

Hawkins went to Jacksonville State University where he was a member of both the football and the baseball teams from 1947 to 1951.

During the Korean War, he served as physical training instructor and assistant football coach for the Naval Training Center at Bainbridge, Maryland. After leaving the Navy, he returned to Alabama and served as an assistant coach for two seasons at Etowah.

Hawkins landed the head coaching job at Collinsville High School in 1955 and stayed for two seasons. The Panthers had won just one game in each of the three seasons before Hawkins arrived. In his first year, Collinsville went 3-3-2. Collinsville finished the next season with an 8-1-1, only a 13-6 loss to Walnut Grove kept the Panthers from an undefeated season.

Coach Hawkins longest stint as a head coach came at Oneonta. He accepted the head coaching position with the Redskins in 1957 and compiled a record of 54-28-8 over the next nine seasons. When Hawkins arrived at Oneonta, the team had won just seven games in the previous four seasons under three different head coaches.

Hawkinss first team went just 2-9 but improved in each of the next three years to an 8-2 record in 1960. The Redskins defeated Susan Moore in the end of year Tomato Bowl which matched the teams with the best records in Blount County.

His 1962 team finished 8-2 and a 14-0 Tomato Bowl victory over Locust Fork. His last team at Oneonta went 9-1 with only a 7-0 loss to Albertville keeping them from an otherwise perfect record.

After the 1965 season, Hawkins accepted the head coaching position at Scottsboro High School where his teams finished 16-13 over the next three seasons.

Hawkins became the head coach at Mortimer Jordan in 1970 where he stayed for four years. His final season saw Mortimer Jordan finish with a 9-2 record and his first, and only, playoff appearance. Hawkins high school coaching career ended with a 35-12 loss to T.R. Miller in the first round of the state playoffs in 1973.

Following his retirement from the football field, Coach Hawkins was named supervisor for driver education for the Jefferson County school system. He also served on the board of directors for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes for the Birmingham Metro Area. Hawkins served three terms from 1984 to 1996 on the Gardendale City Council.

Coach Hawkins record is 106-65-13 in 19 seasons as a head football coach. He was inducted into the Blount County Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.