William Watson

Who was William Watson?

William Delouis Watson, also known as Big Bill Watson, was an American track and field athlete. Watson was the Amateur Athletic Union decathlon champion in 1940 and 1943. He was the first African-American to win the U.S. decathlon championship and the first African-American to be selected as the captain of any athletic team at the University of Michigan, being selected as the captain of the Michigan track team in 1939. While at Michigan, Watson won 12 individual Big Ten Conference championships, including three consecutive championships in the long jump, discus and shot put. He served as a police officer for the Detroit Police Department for 25 years from the early 1940s until his retirement in 1966. Watson was posthumously inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1982.