Bob "Whipper" Watson (born April 6, 1970) is a former goaltender for the

Toronto Rock The Toronto Rock are a professional box lacrosse franchise based in Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the North Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The team was the first Canadian franchise in the NLL. ...

in the

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United Stat ...

and is regarded as one of the best goaltenders ever to play indoor lacrosse Watson won six NLL Championships with the Rock, and was named Championship Game MVP in both

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

and

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. Watson was named NLL Goaltender of the Year in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

and again in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. After 13 years in Toronto and winning 6 Championships, Watson decided to retire to devote his time to family and a new job with the Waterloo Regional Police Service. Watson considered retirement after the 2010 season when the Rock lost to the

Washington Stealth The Washington Stealth were a member of the National Lacrosse League, the professional box lacrosse league of North America from the 2010 NLL season through the 2013 NLL season. They were based in Everett (part of the Seattle metropolitan are ...

in the Championship game, but he later decided to come back for one more season. Mid-way through the 2011 season, Watson announced that it would be his last in the NLL. The Rock made it back to the Championship and in his final NLL game, Watson was named Championship Game MVP for the second time in his career as the Rock beat the Stealth 8-7 in a rematch of the 2010 game. Bob Watson was the only 2011 inductee into the NLL Hall of Fame. He received 86% of the Hall entry votes, the only player that year to surpass the mandatory 75%. He was the third goaltender to be entered into the NLL Hall of Fame.

Statistics

NLL

Reference:

Awards

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Bob 1970 births Canadian lacrosse players Canadian police officers Living people National Lacrosse League All-Stars National Lacrosse League major award winners Sportspeople from Guelph Toronto Rock players