HOUSTON >> The day he turned 52 years old last December, LaTroy Hawkins hit submit on his final paper, the last thing standing between him and a college degree.

And last month, Hawkins, who is currently with the Twins on their road trip serving as an analyst on the television broadcast, donned a cap and gown as he walked across the stage and received his diploma, fulfilling a dream his mother and grandmother had for him and, he hopes, serving as an example to his family’s younger generation.

Drafted in the seventh round of the 1991 draft by the Twins, Hawkins forwent college as a teenager to begin a career in professional baseball. That career lasted 21 major league seasons, during which he appeared in more than 1,000 games.

But as Hawkins, who is currently works as a special assistant to baseball operations for the Twins and a television announcer, among his other jobs, got deeper into retirement, he started to feel the call to return to school.

“They always wanted to make sure I went back and did it. I didn’t have to,” Hawkins said. “I always told them, ‘If I ain’t have to, I’m not doing it.’ But then you get older. … I got bored. I’ve done a lot of things since I’ve retired. It’ll be 10 years this year, but this is probably the coolest thing I’ve done.”

In the fall of 2021, Hawkins decided to test it out, beginning at Collin College, a community college near his home in the Dallas-area. He was paying $64 dollars per credit hour, he said, so if he didn’t like it, he wasn’t too committed financially.

He attended one class in person because he wanted to have “the classroom experience” that he hadn’t had since high school. But primarily, he completed his coursework online as he maintained his other jobs. It was tough at the beginning, adapting to a totally different learning environment than the one he was in as a teenager.

“I was having my daughter help me put stuff in PDF files,” he said.

But once he was done with his general studies credits and transitioned into classes for his major, sociology, he said his “life experiences took over” and classes became easier and more enjoyable.

Hawkins eventually transferred to Southern New Hampshire University to complete his degree online, finishing in the winter and finally walking across the stage months later in May in front of a group of his loved ones, including his aunt, who surprised him at baggage claim when he landed out east.

There was another surprise waiting for him at graduation, too: The school president took a couple minutes to highlight him and his achievements in front of the class of graduates.

Completing his degree, he said, was especially important as he tried to set an example for the younger generation of his family — his daughter, Troi, his niece, who was in college at the same time as him, and his two young nephews.

“It’s one of those things where you start something and you’re trying to set examples, especially for people in your family for and other people you don’t know you’re impacting,” Hawkins said. “If I started, I’ve got to finish it.”

Now that he has his diploma, he’s often asked what comes next.

Turns out, the answer might be even more school — a friend of his is completing a Master of Science in Sports Leadership at Abilene Christian University, which has piqued his interest.

“I got my eye on that,” he said. “We’ll see.”