Early Life and Career
Watts was born in Eufaula in McIntosh County, Oklahoma to J. C. "Buddy" Watts, Sr., and Helen Watts (d. 1992). His father was a Baptist minister, cattle trader, the first black police officer in Eufaula, and a member of the Eufaula City Council. His mother was a homemaker. Watts is the fifth of six children and grew up in a poor rural African American neighborhood. He was one of two black children who integrated the Jefferson Davis Elementary School in Eufaula and the first black quarterback at Eufaula High School.
In high school, Watts fathered a daughter with a white female, causing a scandal. Their families decided against an interracial marriage because of contemporary racial attitudes and Watts' family took care of the child until she could be adopted by Watts' uncle, Wade Watts, a Baptist minister, civil rights leader and head of the Oklahoma division of the NAACP.
Watts married Frankie Jones, an African-American with whom he had a second daughter during high school, in 1977. He graduated in 1976 and attended the University of Oklahoma on a football scholarship.
Watts began his college football career as the seventh-string quarterback and left college twice, but his father convinced him to return and Watts became starting quarterback of the Oklahoma Sooners in 1979 and led them to consecutive Orange Bowl victories. Watts graduated in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism. Watts sought entrance in the National Football League through the New York Jets, but instead entered the Canadian Football League and played for the Ottawa Rough Riders, whom he helped reach the 1981 Grey Cup game. He stayed with the team from 1981 to 1985 and played a season for the Toronto Argonauts before retiring in 1986.
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