Bob Watson was a leader in a big way

      (Third in a series)
     We knew him as "Big Bo" in the mid-1960s at Louisiana Tech University. For more than 40 years, he has been Mr. Watson in El Dorado, Ark.

Bob Watson, Louisiana Tech, mid-1960s
(photo provided by La. Tech sports information office)

     As in, for most of that time, Robert Watson, superintendent of schools.
     You had to notice Bob Watson at 6-foot-10 -- whether it was on a basketball court or in everyday life. As he did for Louisiana Tech's basketball program or in El Dorado schools, he was a pacesetter.
     His basketball career didn't develop as he and many others at Tech had hoped -- well, not after his spectacular first game -- but he was in school for an education. And he achieved much in his career in education.
     In the mid-1970s, he and wife Charlotte moved to her hometown, El Dorado -- the one-time oil-boom city of about 18,500 people in south Arkansas  near the Louisiana border and about an hour north of Louisiana Tech. Mr. Watson, just as on the basketball court, was a big man there.
     He was superintendent of schools for 29 years, retiring in 2014 after a 40-year school administrative career, and he's still serving the city -- as interim administrator at First Baptist Church.
        At Louisiana Tech, he brought size to the basketball program when he arrived early in 1964 as a transfer from his home-state West Virginia University. When he became eligible to play, he became the tallest player in Tech history.
     He set a trend, opening a nine-year span of "big man" Tech basketball.
     Richard Peek (6-11) came to the program a few months later as a transfer from the University of Florida. Charlie Bishop (7 feet) was a freshman on Tech's 1966-67 conference championship team, joining the older guys for a "Triple Towers" front line. 
     Mike Green (6-10) came along three years later, teamed with Bishop for one year, and eventually rewrote the Tech record book.
     Watson wound up as a backup -- playing time in a we're-far-ahead or too-far-behind role. But he brought a spirit, an energy and a personality that was much appreciated by his teammates and the fans.
     As noted in a previous blog, Watson's entry into games his final season was greatly anticipated by the fans at Tech home games. They knew the action would pick up.
     "Bob Watson was a really likable human being -- funny, with a big, booming voice," recalled Jim Pruett, a starting guard during that time and now a retired college professor living in Germantown, Tenn. "I remember him being pretty emotional/vocal, and very good-natured. He could get upset and make some noise!"
---
     There is a Shreveport connection to Watson coming to Louisiana Tech.
     Bob had been a fine player -- his height helped -- at Logan, W.Va., a tiny place in the southeast part of that state near the Kentucky line. Going into the state university and a basketball program that was then (and still is) a national name, he realized he wasn't a fit and looked to transfer.
     His roommate as a freshman was 6-foot-8 Bob Benfield, who had been a two-year star on Coach Scotty Robertson's powerful teams at Shreveport's Byrd High School.
     Robertson had moved on to coach at Louisiana Tech, and so Benfield called Robertson, who then contacted Watson and recruited him to Tech.
     (Benfield was a preacher's son and chose West Virginia because his father had been transferred from Shreveport to a church in Charleston, W.Va. Benfield went on to play regularly for the Mountaineers and was a 1967 NBA draft pick.)

Bob Watson, Don Landry: The occasion was Coach
 Scotty Robertson's funeral in Ruston, Aug. 21, 2011
(photo provided by A.A. "Bud" Dean)

     Watson's arrival began a transformation for Robertson and assistant coach Don Landry.
     "Neither of us had coached players that big," recalled Landry, 77, who lives in Baton Rouge after a long career in coaching and athletic administration. "We studied film, we read, we talked to other coaches, on how to use one or two big post players."
     That included, for Landry quite memorable, lengthy sessions with UCLA coaching legend John Wooden -- who was about to coach 7-foot-1 superstar Lew Alcindor -- and then-Kansas State coach Tex Winter, who had created and written a book on the triple-post offense.
     After one year as an LSU assistant to Dale Brown, Winter carried that offense -- the famed "triangle" -- to the NBA as an assistant (to Phil Jackson) with the champion Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers.
     Soon after Watson joined Tech, so did Peek. First, as transfers, they could only practice.
     "We had one of the nation's smallest teams," said Landry about the 1964-65 Bulldogs, whose biggest starter was 6-4 senior Jerry Hood, a three-time all-conference player -- a terrific shooter from 15 feet in who knew how to use the backboards and brutally strong inside (his teammates actually feared his elbows). But leaping ability? That wasn't Hood.
     Watson earned enough classroom credits in summer school and Tech's 1964 fall semester to become eligible to play in January 1965. Once he joined the lineup, the veteran, savvy Hood continued as the focus of the offense, all around the lane area. He averaged 23.4 points a game that season.
     But Watson's first game ...
     If he had stopped after that one, he would have been a legend. Everyone I contacted remembered and mentioned his debut.
     It was against Northwestern State -- Tech's longtime archrival in athletics -- at then-new Prather Coliseum in Natchitoches, and Watson totally dominated with about 20 points and 15 rebounds -- we think -- in a Tech victory.
     "I don't remember [the numbers] exactly," Watson said last week. "I remember tipping in a lot of shots. I know I didn't shoot any from outside."             
     "He had the best first game of anyone I ever played with," Pruett said. " ... Everyone thought 'stardom.'' I know I did.
     "After that, as I recall, he played himself out of the lineup. I don't recall him ever complaining about his scarce playing time. Just always showed up and did his best as a backup -- and definitely made some positive contributions."
     Watson, who could be effective with short old-time hook shots inside, was a regular for the last nine games of the 1964-65 season, but before the next season (his junior year), mononucleosis kept him out for a long time, and he never regained the edge he'd had.
     Peek became the team's top center for the next two seasons.
     Watson, like many of us, was not aware of Peek's death (two years ago) and was saddened to hear of it, asking for the details. 
         "He were good friends then, he was such a delightful person," Watson said. "... We butted heads a lot in practice. I really got to appreciate him."

     Watson quickly built friendships -- especially with a young woman from El Dorado, Charlotte Causey -- and became a popular teammate, and the source of much laughter.
     Jon Pat Stephenson remembers going with team manager Tom Burkhart to the newly married Watsons' apartment off the Tech campus each Thursday, where Charlotte prepared a meal and together they watched the then-hit series The Man from UNCLE."
     Burkhart was his roommate in Watson's first months at Tech and remembers, after Bob became eligible to play and had his big debut, them going to the Dixie movie theater in downtown Ruston and "everyone started applauding" when they walked in. "Bob liked that, and he thanked them."
     Here is what other teammates said:
     "I really liked Bob," said Sydney Boone, Benfield's Byrd teammate who was on the Tech team when Watson arrived but soon dropped off and became one of the best intramural players at Tech (for Kappa Alpha fraternity). "He always had a smile and a happy 'hello, Syd, how are you doing?' and 'miss you on the court' type greeting when we saw each other on campus." 
     Tommy Gregory, a 6-7 forward who took much of Watson's would-be playing time: "His first game against  Northwestern was gangbusters. ... He never had another game like it.  Bob was thin physically and not as coordinated as he would liked to have been.  His shooting ability was about like mine, not very notable.
     "He was and is the nicest guy."
     Terry Ewing: "Bob was as nice a guy as you would ever want to see. ... He was a great teammate."
---  
     After graduating from Tech with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education, Watson stayed in school and earned a masters' degree in Speech, and with delight, watched the 1967-68 Bulldogs led by old teammates Malcolm Smith, Gregory, Pruett and big Charlie.

     He then went home -- to Logan, W.Va. -- to teach and coach. After five years, he and Charlotte (they married in 1965 after his sophomore year at Tech) returned to the Deep South.

     Having added an Administrator's Certification at University of Arkansas-Little Rock, he went from assistant principal at El Dorado High to junior high principal, then high school principal -- and finally superintendent ... for three decades.

     "I had the opportunity to improve a lot of things," he said of that tenure. "I dealt with finances, and we focused on getting test scores up and creating opportunities for our kids. Had to close some schools and consolidate some, but it was about making progress."

     The crowning achievement came near the end of his career when a new El Dorado High School was built and opened, replacing the old school that had stood since 1963.

     In a 2014 television interview on the day he was honored with a reception just before his retirement, he said, "The biggest accomplishment would probably be the building of the facility that we're in. It was significant in terms of the state said we needed to look at our high school."

     The $50 million facility "looks like a small college campus," Bob said. "It is 317,000 square feet and can handle 1,600 kids."

     And he did all he did without the use of a cellphone or personal e-mail. address. "I had a very good administrative assistant," he said, laughing. "I was with the kids and the staff; that's what was important to me."

     Charlotte and Bob had three children: Dr. Robert Watson II, a primary-care physician in El Dorado; Nancy Watson, a counselor at El Dorado High School; and the late Hartford Watson, who had just earned a doctorate in physical therapy and married when he was killed in an auto accident six years ago.
     All three Watson kids attended Tech, as did Charlotte's father -- Hartford Causey, who played football and baseball there in the 1930s.

     The Watsons have three grandchildren.

     The sons weren't quite as tall as their dad -- Robert II is "only" 6-foot-7, Hartford was 6-5. They did play high school basketball.

     "Big Bo" has no regrets about his time at Tech and basketball.
     "I felt blessed to play ball there," he said last week. "I'll be candid with you -- I didn't worry about playing time. I just wanted to be part of the team, with a bunch of great guys. ...

     "Practice was something. You had Peek and Bishop, and that was a lot of size, a lot of talent. It was a real struggle a lot of days in practice.

     "But to be part of that team was a blessing. I have nothing but fond memories of my years at Louisiana Tech."
     (Next: Richard Peek, man of many seasons)
 

Fifty years ago, a championship team and season

      (Second in a series)
     One reason the 1966-67 Louisiana Tech basketball team was special to me, other than the friends: It was the first conference championship team I experienced in my four years (fall 1965-spring '69) at Tech.
     That 1966-67 team was my sophomore year. The only other Tech team to win a conference championship in those years was in golf of my senior spring, the last of many championships for legendary athletic director/football and golf coach Joe Aillet.
     Great as the football tradition was -- and is -- at the university, not even Terry Bradshaw, in his breakout junior season, could deliver a title (he did with the 1969 Bulldogs, but I had graduated). 
     Great as the Tech baseball tradition was, we missed a championship by a half-game in my freshman year, losing both ends of a final-day doubleheader after winning six consecutive doubleheaders.

Charlie Bishop and Richard Peek, back row, left side. Bob Watson ducked
out of this photo. (from the Shreveport Journal game story)

     So basketball provided the big thrills in many ways in that 1966-67 season, remembered for our "Triple Towers" at center -- Richard Peek, Bob Watson and Charlie Bishop.
     But that team had so much more ... and we thought from the start of practice this would be a great season. It was.  
     We had two veteran guards who could flat-out shoot -- senior Leon Barmore (you might have heard of him, as a women's basketball coach chosen to the Basketball Hall of Fame) and junior Jimmy Pruett, back after a redshirt season (knee injury).
      The other starter was senior small forward Jon Pat Stephenson (6-foot-3), the team's most versatile, fastest and all-around best athlete.
      The bench was strong, led by two juniors -- rugged 6-7 forward Tommy Gregory and tenacious defensive star Malcolm Smith (6-4). In many of the key games, they were on the floor at the finish.
      All five of those players, like Bishop, were from Louisiana. Two other top reserves were guards -- senior Billy Ray Stokes (Yazoo City, Miss.), a junior college transfer in his second year at Tech, and true freshman Wayne Smith (Tishomingo, Okla.) in his only year at Tech.
      Three key factors in this team's success: (1) the big guys, Peek and Bishop as a devastating low-post combo; (2) great balance, all five starters averaged scoring in double figures -- Barmore 15.6, Bishop 14.6, Peek 14.1, Pruett 11.4, Stephenson 11.1; and (3) solid defense -- if you played for Coach Scotty Robertson, you had to play defense ... or you'd sit.
---
       The season began with a victory against a "major" -- at Texas A&M. But December was rough, with four consecutive losses (none all that close) to SEC teams, and a tournament loss to Morehead (Ky.) State in Shreveport.
       Then came 17 victories in the next 19 games -- and an 11-1 record (and championship) in the Gulf States Conference, an all-Louisiana league with bus road trips and longstanding, strong and often heated rivalries.
       No rivalry then, and for the next few years, was more intense than Tech vs. Southwestern Louisiana -- USL. Coach Beryl Shipley had one of the first integrated programs in the Deep South, maybe the first, and Shipley had gone far to recruit very talented -- and many suspected, well-financed -- players.
        This USL team was the first of that program's powerhouse era, which included a couple of NCAA Tournament Division I bids and -- eventually -- a "death penalty" handed out by the NCAA for a large number of rules violations.
        Frankly, we did not like those guys. There was an arrogance about the Ragin' Cajuns. So beating USL twice was the highlight of the season, the difference between first and second place.
        In the first meeting, the first game of 1967 (Jan. 4), Tech won 72-66 on USL's floor. I won't forget that score, hopefully; I remember looking at the scoreboard afterward at old Blackham Coliseum in Lafayette and thinking: This is a huge win.
        But the second meeting, a month later in Ruston, was -- in reality -- the conference championship game. We were tied for first place, and Memorial Gym (which seated 5,000) was crammed to the rafters with about 6,000 fans. It was one of the tightest, most tense games I can remember. I've rarely been more nervous about a game -- and I was just keep statistics.
        Our fans went crazy often that night, especially on dunks by Peek and Bishop which shredded USL's vaunted, stretched 1-3-1 defense. Barmore had 22 points, Bishop had 20 and Peek had 14 rebounds.
        Tech 80, USL 78. Beautiful. Good Guys beat the Mercenaries.
        (I have told people for years: In my four years at Louisiana Tech, this game and victory were topped in athletics only by the Terry Bradshaw-to-Ken Liberto, 82-yard touchdown pass in the final 25 seconds to beat Northwestern State in the 1968 State Fair Game in Shreveport.)
        The GSC title clincher came a few games later by beating another hot rival, Northeast Louisiana, at Memorial Gym. And with a final 19-7 regular-season record came an NCAA Tournament (College Division) invitation -- a first for Tech.
---
        So it was off to the four-team Midwest Regional in Bloomington, Ill., where Illinois State was the home team. It was a plane trip (rare for Tech teams in those days), but without Bishop and Wayne Smith because freshmen were ineligible for College Division postseason play and in Division I, period.
        Without Bishop, the opening-round game was a challenge because North Dakota (19-5 record) had a gangly 6-8 forward/center who was setting all sorts of school records and, we heard, was a hot NBA prospect. His name: Phil Jackson.
        Yes, that Phil Jackson -- two NBA championships as a player (New York Knicks), a record 11 rings as a head coach, and currently running the Knicks.
        The North Dakota coach was Bill Fitch, who 14 years later coached the Boston Celtics (with Robert Parish) to an NBA championship. Fitch's assistant, Jimmy Rodgers, also went on to become a Celtics' head coach.   
        Jackson played well against Tech (21 points, 9-of-13 from the floor), but he didn't dominate. Fact is, Jim Hester -- future New Orleans Saints tight end -- was the Sioux's top scorer with 22. But Tech's balance -- five double-figure scorers, led by Barmore (20) and Stephenson (18), and one near-miss (Gregory had eight) -- led to an 86-77 victory. Peek had 13 points, 10 rebounds.
       That set up a game against Illinois State for a trip to the College Division final eight.
        In the consolation game the next night, Jackson had 52 points against a school named Parsons. The regional title game that followed wasn't pretty for us.
        Illinois State won in a rout and our wonderful season (20-8 record) was finished. So were the college careers of our seniors, including Peek and Watson.
        Bishop remained at Tech for three more seasons and he wasn't a great star, but he starred in many games. Tech basketball played on -- for 50 years, and the women's program founded in the mid-1970s became more of a national power than the men's program.
         Life had just really started for those of us at Tech then, adulthood -- hard as some of us fought it -- and careers awaited. But we had those sweet memories of that basketball season.
         (Next: Bob Watson, big man in town) 

   

A long-ago basketball team that hit the heights

     (First in a series)
     They were our "Triple Towers" -- a basketball team with, if you can imagine, three (nearly) 7-footers.
     It's only been 50 years ago, just a short passage of time. But the memories of the 1966-67 Louisiana Tech University team are clear to those of us who were there.
     It was a championship team, the first Tech team to play in an NCAA Tournament (College Division).

photos from Shreveport Journal, 1967

     And it had that huge front line -- 6-10 senior Bob Watson, 6-11 senior Richard Peek and 7-foot freshman Charlie Bishop. 
     That was unique then ... or in any season. Opposing teams weren't necessarily intimidated, but they took  notice. It had to be one of the country's tallest teams.
     A friend recently suggested I write about those big guys, and that season, and -- to be honest -- although I stay in touch with several of the players from that team, I was not current with the three centers.
     To my dismay, as I began to research, I found on the Internet that Richard Peek, the only one of the three to make a professional regular-season roster, died two years at age 70. Then the news came that Charlie Bishop had died in Ruston -- home of Louisiana Tech -- on Valentine's Day at age 68. 
     I also found a story from May 2014 that Bob Watson was retiring after 29 years as the superintendent of schools in El Dorado, Ark. He still lives in that city, about 53 miles and one hour directly north from Ruston.
     Peek was from Pensacola, Fla., a metropolis compared to the hometowns of Watson (Logan, W.Va.) and Bishop (Summerfield, La.).
     In 1966-67, they were part of a classy, unselfish team -- the best team in our little part of the world. The big guys were fun to watch; the whole team was. 
     These Bulldogs played hard, they were competitive -- and they were smart players. They reflected the head coach, Scotty Robertson. 
     They were serious about winning, but there was lots of joking and laughter. It was a close-knit, friendly, happy bunch, even the team managers and one student sports information assistant/statistician/would-be sportswriter. 
---
     Watson arrived first, coming to Tech in 1964 as a transfer from home-state West Virginia University, where he spent part of one year. When he became eligible to play for the second semester of the 1964-65 season, he became the tallest player in Tech's long basketball history.
     He joined a team that was talented but lacked any significant height. And he was an immediate sensation, although that would not last.
     Peek arrived a few months after Watson and sat out a season as a transfer. He also originally had stayed in his home state, going as a heralded recruit from Escambia High School to the University of Florida, where he had played for two seasons (one on the freshman team, one as a varsity letterman).
     Peek was a starter from the start for Tech in the 1965-66 season, averaging 17.4 points a game and leading the team in rebounding. He basically replaced Watson, who had been ill and never regained a regular spot.
     A team with no seniors showed promise late in the season, going from a 6-9 record to eight victories in the final 10 games, including the memorable comeback from six points down with 21 seconds to play against Centenary (the "Donnie Henry punch game," subject of a previous blog piece: 
http://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-punch-line-what-finish.html).
      So the only starter not returning for the 1966-67 season was shooting forward George Stone, who opted for a pro baseball career (and made the majors).
     His starting replacement: Charlie Bishop. We went from 6-foot-3 to 7 feet. Prospects for this team were promising.
     Bishop was a true freshman in the fall of 1966, a much sought-after recruit by Robertson (about to enter his third season as head coach at Tech), a player with size that had rarely -- maybe never -- had been seen in North Louisiana. He had some ability, he'd averaged close to 30 points a game for his Class C (smallest classification) school, but he was a raw college prospect.
    Charlie wasn't shy, he was willing to work, eager to learn and Peek -- quiet, reserved, determined and a polished, skilled offensive player with strong moves around the basket -- was a mentor.
    Fans loved them, especially their dunks off lob passes from the wings or guards, as Robertson installed a double low-post offense. That helped beat a lot of teams.
    Watson was the roughest of the three centers and while he played mostly in a mop-up role, the home fans loved him, loved his spirit. He was a crowd favorite. He was all arms and legs, and jerky motion, and action always picked up -- one way or the other -- with him on the floor.
---

    Peek was drafted by an NBA team, but played with the Dallas Chaparrals the next season, the first season of the American Basketball Association. Two trades and a hurting body convinced him to stop playing ball.
    Watson graduated with a BA degree in Education, then earned a masters' degree in Speech and moved into a 45-year career as an educator/administrator.
    Bishop played three more seasons at Tech and started 97 games in his college career. He was Tech's No. 4 career scoring leader (1,398 points) when he finished, he made all-conference, and his 11.5 per-game rebound average is still fourth on the all-time Tech list (Peek is No. 5 at 10.3).
    Bishop had a shot at the NBA, but a knee injury spoiled that, and basketball was soon over for him.

Bob Watson

     A little-known secret, as I remember it: None of our "Triple Towers" were 7-footers then. Not even Bishop.
     Watson was a hulking 6-10, kind of a stooped figure at times. We listed Peek at 6-11; the next year the Chaparrals made him a 7-footer. His widow, Carole, says he actually was 6-10 1/2.
     And Charlie was listed as 6-11 in high school. Measured before his freshman season, he was 6-11 3/4. Close enough, said Scotty Robertson, let's round it up. So he was listed as 7 feet. Maybe he grew into that.  
    Here is a thought I had: Not many fireman were as tall as Peek (that was his occupation for 33 years in Dallas); not many school superintendents were as tall as Watson; not many industrial mechanics were as tall as Bishop. They were -- pun here -- in the upper echelon of their professions.
     I can tell you for sure that those three big guys were all popular and friends with their teammates.

Charlie Bishop

     Subsequent three blog pieces will tell of the lives of our "Triple Towers." They each had interesting and what I consider rich lives -- careers, many interests, families they were proud of (and families proud of them). They had to deal with tragedy -- a son killed, a spouse's death, and for Peek and Bishop, debilitating health issues in later years that led to their deaths.         
     Louisiana Tech has had many outstanding men's basketball teams, before and after -- 21 conference champions. The 1966-67 team wouldn't make my top five of Tech teams, maybe not even top 10 (when Tech moved to Division I, the schedule got tougher and the talent got better).
      But this isn't an objective sportswriting piece. That "Triple Towers" team in 1966-67 were my guys -- and they still are.
      (Next: A championship team and season)