Anyone who saw a game at Wrigley Field between 1987 and 1992 remembers the drill: The Hawk trots to his outfield post. Fans in the right field bleachers stand and bow. They add a "salaam" motion, with right arms outstretched.

Andre "Hawk" Dawson, the Cubs right fielder from 1987 to 1992, was one of the most beloved players in Chicago history. How he came to play in Chicago goes back to his high school days.

As a prep in Miami, Dawson played defensive back on the school football team. While trying to make an interception, Dawson suffered a knee injury that would bother him throughout his athletic career.

He came to the major leagues with the Expos, and Dawson won the 1977 N.L. Rookie of the Year Award. He enjoyed an outstanding 10-year run in Montreal.

Years of play on Olympic Stadium's synthetic turf caused his leg to ache, however, and by 1984 Dawson was taking pain pills. When he got out of bed on mornings after a game, Dawson had to hobble into the shower and run hot water on his legs in order to move around.

Until the 1986 season, Dawson prided himself on his ability to play despite the agony. But that year, Dawson recalls, "I could think about nothing else but the throbbing pain in my knees. I was beginning to feel like an old man. I walked like old Festus from the TV show Gunsmoke."

After the 1986 season Dawson became a free agent. His good friend and former Expos teammate Warren Cromartie, who by then played for the Yomiuri Giants in Tokyo, tried to convince Dawson to come to Japan.

"They'll pay you the real money that you deserve over here," insisted Cromartie.

But Dawson's wife Vanessa had other ideas, especially after all the years she and Andre had spent in French-speaking Quebec.

"You're crazy!" she informed Dawson. "Both of you are crazy! Playing ball in Japan? It's bad enough that we would speak differently from all the hundreds of millions of people over there, but we'd look different, too!"

And so Dawson set his sights instead on Wrigley Field, a hitter's paradise with natural grass. The Cubs seemed reluctant, so Dawson made an unprecedented offer. Send a blank contract, said Hawk, and I'll sign it; you fill in the dollar amount.

Pitcher Rick Sutcliffe offered to donate $100,000 of his own salary to sign Dawson. "We got no chance to win without him," maintained Sut. "And it would be worth it to me to get him on our club."

The Cubs signed Dawson for $500,000, less than half his salary at Montreal. Yet he couldn't have been happier.

"I was a Chicago Cub!" Dawson remembers thinking. "I wanted to jump, I wanted to scream."

When he batted for the first time in Chicago, the Wrigley Field fans gave him a standing ovation.

If the '87 Cubs couldn't win without Dawson, they didn't win with him, either. They finished last in the N.L. East.

But Dawson was a one-man show. He became the first player from a last-place club to capture the MVP Award, driving in 137 runs with 47 homers and a .287 batting average. Chicago rooters had found a new hero.

"Everything was too good to be true," says Dawson of his first year in Chicago, "especially the Cubbie fans. I could talk, mix, and have a relationship with them, something I had been unable to do in Montreal."

Dawson was part of Chicago's resurgence in 1989 under manager Don Zimmer. The Cubs improved by 16 games to finish ahead of the Mets, N.L. champions a year before. Against all odds, the "Boys of Zimmer" won the Eastern Division title.

Dawson's knee had started acting up again, and he underwent surgery in May. Despite playing in just 118 games, he still managed 21 homers and 77 RBI.

But once again, the Cubs were thwarted in post-season play when the Giants beat them in the League Championship Series.

Dawson left the Cubs after 1992 and played for Boston and Miami before retiring. Like so many other Cub greats, his days in Wrigley Field were unforgettable.

"In Montreal," he reminisced, "you never got quite the exposure you get here in the States. In Chicago, you became a household name. The fans love the ball club and are right on top of you. It makes it easy to go out and enjoy yourself."

A deeply religious man, Dawson made an impact not only on the game, but on many of his fellow players.

"He inspired others by who he is and the example he sets," declares Ernie Banks. "All who touch his life, just by his example, better who they are."

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