Editor’s Note: This is part one in a three part Ahmad Hawkins series.
On Friday night, when the lights were bright in Hampton, Virginia, there was one football team and one superstar that owned the spotlight in the mid 1990’s.
Hampton High School and Ronald Curry.
In an era before social media, Ronald Curry exploded onto the scene and culminated his Crabber career as a two-sport golden god. Curry, an All-American quarterback and point guard and the National Player of the Year in 1997, led Hampton High School to three-straight football state championships, including a National Title, and one basketball state championship. Curry, a 6-foot-2 wizard with braun, brains and balls, won the Slam Dunk contest in the McDonald’s All-American game and then proceeded to earn MVP honors in the game itself.
Ahmad Hawkins, the CEO and owner of the booming brand, Ball Hawk, LLC, watched The Ronald Curry Legend explode faster than Hampton Coach Mike Smith’s infamous temper. Hawkins, who played football at the University of Virginia, was Curry’s go-to wide receiver for two of his three state championships.
“I first met [Ronald Curry] when I was in the sixth grade at Lindsay Middle School. He was playing for the Hampton Tornados, and I was playing for the Aberdeen Raiders. We scrimmaged them. I remember people talking about this quarterback,” Hawkins recalled. “Within the third play, I knew who he was because he just launched a pass like 40 yards.”
Hawkins said Curry was ahead of this time. All of us in The 757 knew a rockstar was living in Hampton, Virginia.
“Part of me wanted to be Ronald, but a part of me was glad I wasn’t him because he could barely move. He could barely do what he wanted to do. Even though Hampton, they gave us our space, our student body did. They embraced us for who we were, but that guy… He would go to the mall and get mobbed.”
In Episode 1 of our three part series on Ahmad Hawkins, we discussed what it was like to be on the Hampton High School football team during the mid 1990’s as the Crabbers were winning championships and smoking their competition like no one had ever seen before.
Hawkins, a successful sports TV and radio broadcaster, is also the visionary behind Ball Hawk, LLC, a vertically-integrated company with a sports broadcasting division, a public speaking division, a branded apparel division and a live events division.
Guys, Episode 1 is absolutely fire!!
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