Born in Cheltenham, South Australia, Hawke quickly developed as a natural all-round sportsman who excelled in cricket, football and golf.

Hawke made an impact on the cricket field as a medium-fast swing bowler with an unusual "crab-like'" action, a capable lower-order batsman and a sound fieldsman.

Hawke was a member of the 1963/64 Sheffield Shield winning South Australian team, and toured England (where he qualified for the British amateur golf championship and became Fred Trueman's 300th Test victim), India and Pakistan in 1964 and the West Indies in 1965.

Smith, Dave Brown and Jim Parks all caught behind by Wally Grout in succession, and his 7/105 was his best bowling in Tests, but Australia still lost by an innings.

Hawke stamped himself as a future champion when in his third game he kicked 15 goals for Port against South Adelaide before being surprisingly dropped two weeks later.

Tributes poured in from throughout the sporting world: on day two of the 2000 Boxing Day Test, the Australian players wore black armbands as a mark of respect; the South Australian Government created the Neil Hawke Scholarship for young sportspeople and obituaries claimed that he was the finest all-round sportsman South Australia had produced.