Whipper Billy Watson Whipper Billy Watson William John Potts, (June 25, 1915 – February 4, 1990) was a Canadian professional wrestler best known by his ring name "Whipper" Billy Watson, and was a two-time world heavyweight wrestling champion. Watson was born in 1915 in East York, Ontario (now part of Toronto) to an English born father, John Potts and a Canadian born mother, Alice Mary Wilken. Watson began wrestling in Toronto under his real name. He was a member of the Scarborough Athletic Club in the mid-1930s and was wrestling on what were billed as amateur wrestling shows in Toronto. For four years
Burl S. Watson industry and served as a national leader of the American Red Cross and Salvation Army. Watson served for many years as the director of the American Petroleum Institute. Born in the small town of Lincoln, Alabama to farmer Byron Alexander Stephens Watson, he was the first graduate of Lincoln High School and went on to the University of Alabama, where he majored in electrical engineering. There is a scholarship in his name at Alabama to this day due to a donation he made to the university, which was later enhanced by Cities Service Company. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate