Even after his death, a UK mega-fan’s ‘passion for Kentucky basketball’ lives on
Growing up in Webster County in western Kentucky, William Watson developed a love of Kentucky Wildcats basketball. Even though he spent most of his life working as a dentist in Missouri, his ardor for the Cats never went away.
Watson’s lifetime of support for UK ended last May 16 when he died at age 96. Yet, when the No. 19 Kentucky men’s basketball team visits No. 15 Missouri on Saturday, the passion that Watson had for UK will be alive and on display at the Mizzou Arena.
It was Jan. 29, 2015, in the lobby of The Broadway Columbia hotel when Will Skeeters laid eyes on Watson for the first time. The Broadway was serving as the team hotel for the undefeated Kentucky Wildcats who were in town to face the SEC rival Missouri Tigers that night.
Skeeters and his brothers, Ben and Johno, had family ties to Kentucky but none had lived in the state since childhood. However, they, too, had maintained their UK basketball fandom. So they had traveled to Columbia from multiple states intending to create a new family tradition of going to one Wildcats men’s basketball game each year.
The brothers noticed the elderly man sitting on a lounge chair in the hotel lobby. Watson was hard to miss. He held a Wildcat blue satchel and was decked out in a Kentucky sweatshirt and a UK hat.
Even though Watson did not have tickets to that night’s game, he had traveled from DeSoto to Columbia just to be close to the Cats.
Feeling kinship with a fellow Kentucky fan, Will Skeeters introduced himself to Watson.
Watson talked the ears off the Skeeters brothers about John Calipari’s No. 1 Wildcats. He also shared that he would be joining the Wildcats on the team bus to ride to the arena and for the Cats’ shoot-around.
“We thought he was a little bit crazy,” Will Skeeters says. “I mean, how’s this guy going to go to the shoot-around?”
Later, however, the Skeeters brothers watched as the Kentucky team bus returned to the hotel from the game-day practice.
“The first one off the bus was none other than Dr. Bill Watson,” Will Skeeters says. “After that, we realized ... it would be in our best interest to get to know him better because he knew a thing or two about Kentucky basketball. So we took him to lunch.”
What was formed that day was a connection that will come full circle this weekend in Columbia.
Always a Wildcat
According to family legend, Watson’s love for Kentucky Wildcats basketball was cemented as a teen when he and a classmate made the 432-mile round trip from their home in Clay, Ky., to see Adolph Rupp’s Cats play in Lexington.
After Watson graduated high school in 1946, he joined the Air Force. He became a pilot and, according to his family, flew 66 missions in Korea.
Before Watson left Kentucky, a friend set him up on a blind date. Emma Lou Hooker and Watson clicked, and their ensuing marriage lasted 75 years, until his death, yielding six children.
Following Watson’s exit from the Air Force, he graduated from the then-Memphis State, then attended the University of Tennessee dental school.
“He wanted to go back to Kentucky, but they were not doing their state dental boards at that time,” Donna Watson Dawes says of her father. “Missouri was, so he did his boards, passed and moved the family here to Missouri.”
Across the decades, Watson shifted his family from Jefferson City to Ironton to DeSoto. Yet in spite of a life made in the “Show Me State,” his sports allegiance remained with his native state’s flagship university.
Back before cable TV made almost all Kentucky game telecasts accessible, Watson would sometimes drive to Cape Girardeau, Mo., so he could watch UK play via Paducah television.
Eventually, Watson filled a “UK room” in his house with Wildcats memorabilia.
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By the time the Skeeters brothers met Watson in 2015, the focus of his UK basketball memorabilia was a scrapbook he carried with him. It contained game programs, newspaper articles, even a personal letter from Tubby Smith that Watson cherished.
“It was a magical bag that he had,” Will Skeeters says. “He could pull out articles from the ‘50s, ‘60’s, ‘70’s, you name it.”
Closing the circle
From that first meeting in Columbia, Mo., in 2015, the Skeeters siblings — four brothers and a sister — made Watson a central part of their annual UK basketball trips.
“It was almost like they adopted a grandfather,” Dawes says.
For 2015-16, the Skeeters took Watson to Kentucky’s game at Texas A&M. In the years after that, they often would bring him with them to Nashville to see UK play Vanderbilt.
At one of those Vandy games, UK alumna Ashley Judd was in attendance. It was quite the thrill for Watson, Will Skeeters says, when the actress agreed to have her picture taken with him.
On Saturday, to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of their first UK men’s basketball trip and to honor Watson’s memory, all five of the Skeeters siblings are flying — two from California, two from Colorado, one from Arizona — to Missouri to attend the Wildcats game with Mizzou.
“Life is about meeting amazing people and creating amazing bonds,” Will Skeeters says. “Dr. Bill was the best, man. He could talk Kentucky basketball with the best of them.”
Meanwhile, around 15 members of the Watson family will also attend the game. Though none of the immediate family has lived in Kentucky for decades, William Watson’s love of the Wildcats has been passed down to (most of) his descendants.
For Saturday’s game, Dawes will pass out T-shirts with her Dad’s picture on them for the entire crew to wear while they root on the Cats.
“My Dad would be so thrilled to know we are doing this,” Dawes says.
