Dawkins attended the United States Military Academy, where he played as a halfback for the Army Cadets football team from 1956 to 1958.

Accepted by Yale University, Dawkins chose instead to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Dawkins began his playing career at West Point under head football coach Earl Blaik as a fourth string quarterback before being cut from the position.

[5] Later playing as a halfback during his junior and senior season, Dawkins saw great success and eventually won the Heisman Trophy and the Maxwell Award and was a consensus All-America selection in 1958.

At Oxford, he won three Blues in rugby union and is credited with popularizing the overarm throw (originally called the "Yankee torpedo pass") into the lineout.

[7] He earned a BA at Brasenose College, Oxford in 1962[7] in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (promoted to an MA in 1968, per tradition) and later earned a Master of Public Affairs in 1970 and a PhD in 1977 from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University with the dissertation The United States Army and the "Other" War in Vietnam: A Study of the Complexity of Implementing Organizational Change.

In 1966 Dawkins appeared in uniform on the cover of Life Magazine[9] and participated in a segment of the U.S. Army "Big Picture" film series, "A Nation Builds Under Fire.

Following his retirement from the Army, Dawkins took up a position as a partner in the Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers,[11] later becoming vice-chairman of Bain & Company.

[12] The race was notable for the negative tone that emerged from both sides and for Lautenberg's criticism of Dawkins's lack of roots in the state.