Richard's late father Graham amassed over 500 appearances in the 1960s and 1970s. Hawkins Snr also managed Wolves, his boyhood club, in the top-flight in the early 1980s.
It was little surprise when Richard's vocation was to be involved with the beautiful game, and he suspected it would be his calling.
"You see some kids want to be a footballer but I never felt that strongly that would be for me," he admits, during our chat about the publication at Carrington. "I always felt a connection to the industry and my pathway was the academic route. The research I did was involved in football and I got my first job with the FA and it just grew from there.