William Watson, a native of Webster County, Kentucky, cultivated a lifelong passion for Kentucky Wildcats basketball that endured even during his dental career in Missouri, and although his devoted support concluded with his passing at 96 on May 16, his spirit will be celebrated when the No. 19 Kentucky men’s basketball team faces No. 15 Missouri at Mizzou Arena.
On January 29, 2015, at The Broadway Columbia hotel—home to the undefeated Kentucky Wildcats before their SEC clash with the Missouri Tigers—Will Skeeters first encountered Watson, and along with his brothers Ben and Johno, who, despite childhood ties to Kentucky, had maintained their Wildcats fandom, he traveled from various states to Columbia to establish a new family tradition of attending one Kentucky men’s basketball game each year.
The Skeeters brothers spotted the unmistakable elderly Watson in the hotel lobby—he was hard to miss with his Wildcat blue satchel, Kentucky sweatshirt, and UK hat—and despite not having a ticket for that night’s game, he had traveled from DeSoto to Columbia just to be near his beloved Cats.
Feeling a kinship as fellow Kentucky fans, Will Skeeters introduced himself to Watson, who then eagerly regaled the Skeeters brothers with details about John Calipari’s top-ranked Wildcats and revealed he planned to join the team bus and attend the shoot-around—a notion that left Skeeters thinking, “How’s this guy going to go to the shoot-around?”
Later, when the Kentucky team bus returned from practice, the Skeeters brothers noticed that Dr. Bill Watson was the first to step off, and realizing his deep knowledge of Kentucky basketball, they decided it was in their best interest to get to know him better by taking him to lunch.
A connection forged that day will come full circle this weekend in Columbia, and family lore says Watson’s passion for Kentucky Wildcats basketball began in his teens when he and a classmate drove 432 miles from Clay, Ky., to see Adolph Rupp’s team in Lexington; after graduating in 1946, he joined the Air Force as a pilot and, according to his family, flew 66 missions in Korea.
Before leaving Kentucky, Watson was set up on a blind date with Emma Lou Hooker, sparking a 75-year marriage that produced six children, and after serving in the Air Force and graduating from Memphis State before attending the University of Tennessee dental school, he moved his family to Missouri—where he could take and pass the state dental boards, since Kentucky wasn’t offering them at the time.
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