William Watson (decathlete)

By the time the Olympic Games were resumed in 1948, Watson had given up track competition for a full-time career with the Detroit Police Department. Watson worked as a police officer for 25 years, winning eight meritorious service citations. Watson retired from the Detroit Police Department in 1966 and died at age 56 in Detroit in 1973. Waston is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Saginaw. He was posthumously inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1982 and was inducted into the inaugural class of the Saginaw County Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.

With World War II continuing, the 1944 Olympic games were again cancelled, and with the cancellation, Watson lost his second and final chance to compete for an Olympic gold medal in the decathlon. Watson continued training in 1944 to defend his A.A.U. decathlon championship, but a sinus attack forced him to withdraw from the competition. At the time, Detroit police officer Watson said, "I sure am sorry to miss the decathlon, because I think I could have won it again."

By 1943, Watson had joined the Detroit Police Department, but took time to compete for the Detroit Police Athletic Club in the 1943 A.A.U. championship in Elizabeth, New Jersey. At the meet, the Detroit policeman easily won his second American decathlon championship. Watson compiled a 513-point lead in the first nine events and chose not to compete in the 1,500-meter run, the final event of the decathlon. He finished with 5,994 points in nine events, beating runner-up Joshua Williamson by 186 points.

Watson did not compete in the 1941 A.A.U. championship, but attempted a comeback at the 1942 A.A.U. meet in Chicago. Watson won the shot put and finished in second place with a score of 6,076 points—nearly 1,500 points below his 1940 score.

With his talent in numerous track and field events, many believed Watson could have set a new world decathlon record in the Olympics. However, the 1940 Olympic games were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II.

With the Olympics canceled, the only decathlon competition held in the United States was the June 1940 A.A.U. championship held in Cleveland, Ohio. The favorites going into the 1940 A.A.U. championship were Watson and two-time defending American decathlon champion, Joe Scott, who had overcome infantile paralysis. One writer described the anticipated matchup between Watson and Scott as follows:

As Watson concluded his collegiate career in 1939, he took a job as the private secretary to heavyweight boxing champion, Joe Louis, and began training for the 1940 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. Expectations were high that Watson would be one of the United States' biggest stars in the 1940 Olympic games. In June 1939, sports columnist Charles Dunkley wrote and article predicting success for Watson in Helsinki. Dunkley wrote:

In predicting that a permanent injury was the only thing that could derail Watson's Olympic dreams, Dunkley and Hoyt failed to account for the outbreak of World War II in Europe less than three months away. During the summer of 1939, Watson toured pre-war Europe with a handpicked U.S. track team. And on August 21, 1939, less than two weeks before the German invasion of Poland, Time magazine predicted that Watson would be America's 1940 Olympic hero, even comparing him to Jesse Owens. Time's August 1939 profile of Watson stated:

After graduating from Saginaw High School, Watson enrolled in 1935 at the University of Michigan, where he competed in track under famed track coach Charles B. Hoyt. Watson's first year of competition came as a sophomore in 1937. The 1937 Big Ten Track Championship was held in Ann Arbor in the rain, and Watson won championships in the long jump, shot put and discus, and also excelled in sprints and high hurdles. Watson's effort helped Michigan to the conference championship and led to Watson's becoming known as "the one-man track team."

William Delouis Watson (December 18, 1916 – 1973), also known as Big Bill Watson, was an American track and field athlete. Watson was the Amateur Athletic Union (A.A.U.) 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 (1937–1939) 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.

Watson was born in 1916 in Boley, Oklahoma. He moved with his family to Saginaw, Michigan, at age seven. He was one of the most outstanding athletes in the history of Saginaw High School. Originally, Watson intended to become a boxer and took up track as a means to improve his fitness. His biography at the Saginaw County Sports Hall of Fame describes his high school accomplishments as follows: