Bob Gantt and Watkins brothers inducted

By Jim Lisk, Editor

Sunday, May 11, 2008 May 12, 2008 02:46 pm

— On a night of celebrating athletic prowess and success, the theme of family and community took center stage as Bob “Goo Goo” Gantt and the brother tandem of Curtis and Johnny Watkins were inducted into the Stanly County Sports Hall of Fame.
After being introduced by Woody Durham, the “Voice of the North Carolina Tar Heels,” Gantt, a former Tar Heel two-way back from 1948-1951, mused, “I hope my family comes. I wasn’t prepared to see this big crowd.”
Gantt then entertained the packed Magnolia Room at Stanly Regional Medical Center, sharing his journey from wanting to be an offensive lineman to stardom as a fullback, thanks to Coach Toby Webb and a trapping guard, Charlie Ross.
After a year as a center for the Albemarle Bulldogs, Gantt was moved to fullback for his senior year when Coach Toby Webb arrived on the scene and installed the single wing offense.
That year Gantt had enough long runs to make the Shrine Bowl team and caught the eye of college recruiters. On Thursday night, Gantt applauded teammate and trapping guard Charlie Ross for his success.
“I think any athlete in any sport, especially football, is dependent on his teammates for success,” Gantt said. “Charlie Ross was the very best as a trapping guard. He would open holes that anybody could fly through. Without Charlie, there would have been no big gains, no Shrine Bowl and no college interest. I give him full credit for any success that I’ve had.”
Gantt also praised Coach Webb, who he described as “just not an ‘x-and-o coach’ but a coach of young men.”
“He’d do whatever was necessary to get the job done,” Gantt said. “You only have to look at the very successful citizens that he produced to see what a great coach he was.”
For the first time in its 20 years, the Stanly County Hall of Fame inducted two brothers on the same night.
Curtis Watkins, who starred for West Badin from 1959-1962 and later at NC Central, and his younger brother, Johnny, a West Badin standout and star at Winston-Salem State, were enshrined together.
In accepting, Curtis Watkins paid tribute to his parents for always supporting he and Johnny in athletics and his coach at West Badin, J.B. Davis, for making everyone feel “special.”
After playing basketball almost every day as a youngster growing up in West Badin, Watkins said he felt like he was the best player in the world when he walked on the campus of NC Central.
“My vision changed pretty quickly. If you’re 175 pounds and you’re playing against a guy who’s 6-8 and 250, it’s pretty hard to see around him,” Watkins said. “That changed my thinking and I realized I’d better get a degree.”
In considering how good his younger brother was, Watkins said he’d ranked his top 30 West Badin athletes and had put Johnny at right at the top.
“I ranked Johnny number one, partly because he’s my brother. But he was that good. I was somewhere in the middle,” Watkins said.
“When we were playing at West Badin, the entire community was behind us. When we were winning the state championships, there weren’t two people left in Badin. Everybody packed up and to the game,” he said. “I accept this plaque and dedicate it to the West Badin community.”
Accepting for Johnny Watkins, who died in 1991, were his two sons, Corey and Johnny, Jr.
Although he never saw his dad play, Corey Watkins heard the stories of his dad playing for Coach Clarence “Big House” Gaines and with Earl “The Pearl” Monroe on the 1967 national champions.
“Throughout life, I’ve been blessed with a gift and a curse,” Corey Watkins said. “Being a Watkins, we had to make good grades and play basketball.”
“If my dad could be here today, he’d be smiling and joking,” he said.
For Johnny, Jr., the evening was both rewarding and painful as he recalled the father who could not be there.
“When he passed away, we all went in a hole,” he said “It was a tough.
“He’d never put pressure on us to play, we’d never even had a basketball conversation. It all began at the YMCA for my cousin Lamar and me. He’d look over the rail and watch us play.
“Then, when I stepped on the floor to play at Winston-Salem State and saw his name there, it became my motivation that I had to live up to his standards.”
Following the inductions, Appalachian State and National Coach of the Year for three consecutive years, Jerry Moore spoke.
“Tonight is incredible, this is awesome,” Moore said. “What’s really special is that this is happening right here in your home town where people care about you.”
In speaking of Appalachian’s astounding upset of Michigan before more than 109,000 fans last fall, Moore said, “We knew we had one shot at playing Michigan and we never referred to it as a money game. We called it an opportunity.
“We knew we’d have to be in great shape for that’s the way it is in life every day.”
And that his Mountaineers were. Just 15 offensive and 14 defensive players went on center stage as the Mountaineers shocked the entire sports world.
On that memorable day, the last thing Moore told his team before they left the locker room was: “You deserve to be here.”
The same could be said of Bob “Goo Goo” Gantt, Curtis Watkins and Johnny Watkins on Thursday .night.

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