Bobby Watson

Robert Lee Watson (August 8, 1942 – December 13, 1977) was an American basketball coach. He was in his first season as a head coach for the Evansville Purple Aces men's basketball team when he and his team were killed in the 1977 Air Indiana Flight 216 crash.

Watson was a college basketball player for the VMI Keydets and began his coaching career at a Virginia high school. His early coaching career was interrupted by two stints in the Vietnam War but he returned as an assistant coach for the Xavier Musketeers. Watson first came to prominence as the head coach for the Ferrum Panthers from 1971 to 1973. He worked as an assistant coach for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons and the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles. Watson was hired as the head coach of the Purple Aces in 1977 for their first season as a member of NCAA Division I competition and had amassed a 1–3 record at the time of his death.

College and military career Watson grew up in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. He was a star basketball and baseball player while he attended Bethel Park High School and was offered a basketball scholarship to attend the Virginia Military Institute. As the team's starting center, Watson served as a team captain during his senior season when the Keydets won the 1964 Southern Conference championship.

Instead of playing professionally, Watson embarked on a coaching career immediately after the end of his college stint and was hired by William Fleming High School in Roanoke, Virginia. Watson entered the United States Army in 1965 and served two tours in the Vietnam War as a member of the 101st Airborne Division. He was shot out of a helicopter three times and once narrowly escaped death when his disabled helicopter fell 75 feet into a rice paddy field, which cushioned the crash. who had personally recruited Watson to the program. When Krajack resigned in 1971, Watson also left the Musketeers out of loyalty to Krajack.

Evansville On March 11, 1977, Watson was announced as the head coach of the Evansville Purple Aces. It was the Aces' first season in 31 years without head coach Arad McCutchan, who had led the team to five NCAA Division II championships.

Watson led a recruitment period overseeing nine freshmen signing to join the team for the 1977–78 season, whom he believed to be "as fine a nucleus as we could have brought in for the coming years." He also launched public relation campaigns with local community leaders to improve ticket sales, selling 1,000 new season tickets in the few weeks after he was hired. Evansville business manager Bob Hudson stated, "I've never seen a man work so hard or more so fast." Their first and only win of the season came on December 6, 1977, against the Pittsburgh Panthers.

On December 13, 1977, the Purple Aces were to fly to Nashville, Tennessee, to play the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders the following night. The Aces teams under McCutchan would often travel to away games on the same day, but Watson preferred to fly a day early to allow his players to practice on the host's court. Watson was the only coach on board the flight as his assistant coaches were on scouting assignments at the time. They had three daughters.

Legacy Watson was inducted into the Evansville Purple Aces Hall of Fame in 1978 and the Ferrum College Alumni Sports Hall of Fame in 1997. Ferrum College offers the Bobby Watson Endowed Scholarship, which is awarded to students with an interest in athletics.