Robert Archbald Watkins Jr. (March 30, 1932 – September 25, 2022) was a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

halfback who played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...

and professionally in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

(NFL).

Ohio State

Watkins was one of the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

running backs at the

. He lettered from 1952 through 1954 and was one of the first recruits of legendary Ohio State football

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

Woody Hayes Wayne Woodrow Hayes (February 14, 1913 – March 12, 1987) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Denison University (1946–1948), Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1949–1950), and Ohio State University (1951 ...

. Hayes shrugged off criticism by some bigoted alumni, insisting he would not consider recruits based on skin color. Watkins was Ohio State's leading rusher in 1953 and leading scorer during the 1954 national championship season.

NFL

Watkins was the 23rd selection in the

1955 NFL Draft The 1955 National Football League draft was held January 27–28, 1955 at the Warwick Hotel in New York City. This was the ninth year that the first overall pick was a bonus pick determined by lottery. With the previous eight winners ineligib ...

. He played three years with the Bears before ending his career with the crosstown

Chicago Cardinals The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons. Roots ...

Professional life

Watkins formerly served as a vice president of Seagrams and Sons and is an expert on the American Civil War. He has been a guest speaker on many occasions including as the keynote speaker at the Plymouth Teaching American History Grant's culminating celebration. He served as the Chair of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Blue Ribbon Commission on Athletics.

External links

NFL.com player page
1932 births Living people American football halfbacks Chicago Bears players Chicago Cardinals players Ohio State Buckeyes football players Sportspeople from New Bedford, Massachusetts Players of American football from Bristol County, Massachusetts African-American players of American football 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople {{Runningback-1930s-stub