hawks began his professional baseball career in 1918, when he played for the oakland oaks of the pacific coast league. he hit .248 over the season, with a home run and two triples. the following year, under manager del howard, hawks recorded a perfect 1.000 batting average, with two hits in two at-bats over a game played. next season he moved to the calgary bronchos, where he hit a western canada league-leading .359 off of a league-leading 161 hits. in 1921, hawks made his mlb debut for the new york yankees; for the yankees, hawks hit .288 with two home runs and 15 rbis. after one-year stints with the vernon tigers, the nashville volunteers, and the st. paul saints, hawks returned to the volunteers for the 1924 season, where he hit a team-best .336 batting average, along with a .494 slugging percentage, second best on the volunteers to bevo lebourveau's .536.