Joseph Chessar Watt (June 18, 1919 – June 27, 1983) was an

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

halfback who played professionally for three seasons in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL Watt was born in Montreal and attended Erasmus High School in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

and

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

. Watt served as a lieutenant in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and was a member of the 1944 Camp Lee Travellers football team. Watt was selected by the

Boston Yanks The Boston Yanks were a National Football League team based in Boston, Massachusetts, that played from 1944 to 1948. The team played its home games at Fenway Park. Any games that conflicted with the Boston Red Sox baseball schedule in the Ameri ...

the 47th pick in the seventh round of the

1947 NFL draft The 1947 NFL draft was held on December 16, 1946, at the Commodore Hotel in New York City, New York. The National Football League in this draft made the first overall pick, a bonus pick determined by lottery. The Chicago Bears won the first lo ...

and later played for the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...

and the

New York Bulldogs The New York Yanks were an American football team that played in the National Football League under that name in the 1950 and 1951 seasons. Season-by-season overview 1949 The team began in 1944 as the Boston Yanks, owned by Kate Smith's man ...

. Watt later worked for the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company for over 20 years. He was the founder and president of the Joseph C. Watt Distributing Co. in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

until his retirement in 1982. Watt died on June 27, 1983, at Tomkins Community Hospital, in Ithaca.

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* * 1919 births American football halfbacks Players of American football from Quebec Boston Yanks players 1983 deaths American football defensive backs Camp Lee Travellers football players Detroit Lions players New York Bulldogs players Syracuse Orange football players Syracuse Orangemen baseball players United States Army officers United States Army personnel of World War II Erasmus Hall High School alumni Sportspeople from Brooklyn Gridiron football people from Montreal Players of American football from New York City Baseball players from New York City Military personnel from New York City Anglophone Quebec people 20th-century American sportsmen {{runningback-1910s-stub