Beloit (Wisconsin) considering honor for its first black basketball star

Johnny Watts, a former Harlem Globetrotter, led Beloit Memorial to three consecutive state championships in the thirties

Johnny Watts plaque Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame plaque. / WBCA Hall of Fame

According to report in the Beloit Daily News, the School District of Board of Education has approved the formation of a committee to consider naming the basketball court at Beloit Memorial High School (Wisconsin) for Johnny Watts, the city's first black basketball star.

Watts, who graduated from Beloit in 1934, led the Purple Knights to back-to-back-to-back Wisconsin state championships (1932-34) in addition to starring on the school's football team.

Watts only played briefly on the college level, but he had a long professional career playing with the world famous Harlem Globetrotters and, later, his own all-black barnstorming team, the Negro Globe Trotters, who were based in Milwaukee.

The honor for Watts, who passed away in 2001, has been championed by Beloit's Jim Simmons. The school's gymnasium already has a namesake, as it is named for Bernie Barkin, a coach who led the school's boys basketball team from 1953 through 1982 and won 442 games and one state championship.