Rat Watson

Alfred Grady "Rat" Watson (February 10, 1894 – June 15, 1965), sometimes referenced as Rats Watson, was an American football player. He was the quarterback of the 1916 Second Texas Infantry football team and also played for the 36th Infantry team and survived a gas attack during World War I. He also played college football for the Texas Longhorns in 1913 and 1919 to 1921, leading their 1920 team to a perfect 9–0 record and the Southwest Conference championship. He also played professional football as a quarterback for the Toledo Maroons, Kansas City Blues, Hammond Pros, and Buffalo Bisons in the National Football League (NFL) from 1922 to 1927.

After his football career ended, Watson worked from 1936 to 1959 as an agent for the Texas Liquor Board.

Early life Watson was born in 1894 in Hemphill, Texas. He attended and played football for Orange High School in Texas. When national guard units mobilized to the Mexican border as part of the Pancho Villa Expedition, the Second Texas Infantry won by a 69–0 score over a New York team featuring stars of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, including eight or nine Walter Camp All-Americans. Watson scored two touchdowns against the Eastern stars.

The Second Texas Infantry team was referred to by Texans as "the greatest football team ever assembled in Texas." Watson later said of the Texas Infantry team: "I never expect to see again the perfect coordination there was on the Second Texas team. We ate together, slept together, and practiced every day for hours."

Bill Birge, who played guard for the Second Texas Infantry, said of Watson: "He's just the greatest quarterback who ever cleated a Southern gridiron." During his wartime service, Watson was injured in a gas attack in the Argonne forest, spending 90 days in the hospital.

Watson then played at halfback on both offense and defense for the 1920 Texas Longhorns football team, leading the unit to a perfect 9–0 record and the Southwest Conference championship. The season ended before the largest crowd to date in Texas football history with a 7–3 victory over a Texas A&M team that had not lost a game or allowed a point since 1918. Watson led a fourth-quarter touchdown drive that gave Texas the victory. Watson was described as "one of the most consistent ground-gainers the university ever had and records which he made still stand unequalled." Another Texas player recalled: "When Rats hit an open field, it was like dropping cottontail on a stove."

Injuries limited Watson's playing time for Texas in 1921. He was the liquor board's district supervisor at Beaumont, Texas, from 1936 to 1952. He was then reassigned to lead the Waco division. He retired from the liquor board in 1959 due to ill health.

Watson's health declined in later years, his lungs never fully recovering from the World War I gas attack. In 1959, when Watson was age 65, it was reported that "a short walk can leave him out of breath." Watson died in 1965 at age 71 at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Houston.