Tseshaht athlete reaches Hall of Fame after 50 years

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Tseshaht athlete Tommy Watts was inducted into the Alberni District Senior Secondary School Hall of Fame last month during the annual Totem Tournament.

Hundreds of people jammed into the stands at Alberni District Senior Secondary School to welcome the new inductees, including the first Nuu-chah-nulth athlete to be honored for his athletic accomplishments over the past 50 years.

"I'm really excited about it," said the 67-year-old Watts before the ceremony. "I went in to every sport there was, and I got myself involved in anything there was," he said.

Involved in basketball, soccer, baseball, softball, gymnastics and track and field.

Watts claims to have won more than 400 trophies throughout his athletic career. "If I didn't win a trophy at a tournament, there was something wrong," he said. "Ever since I was six years old I always wanted to be the best athlete in Canada. "Whatever I did, I wanted to be the best."

In 1962, Watts reached his goal as he received the Tom Longboat Award for being the top First Nations athlete in Canada.

Tom Longboat was one of the most celebrated and accomplished athletes in Canadian history. A member of the Onondaga Nation, Longboat was one of the most gifted long-distance runners of his time. In just his third competitive race, he set the world record for the marathon, smashing the previous mark by over five-and-a-half minutes. He held every Canadian record from one mile to the marathon. Throughout his life, Long-boat spoke proudly of his First Nations heritage and held his head high in times of great adversity.

In 1999, Maclean's Magazine voted him the number one Canadian sports figure of the 20th century. Established in 1951, the Tom Longboat Award serves as a proud national symbol for all Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

"It was hard to believe when I received the Tom Longboat Award," said Watts, who was often compared to American Indian athlete Jim Thorpe.

Watts had an amazing career. He once scored seven runs in a softball game, five goals in a soccer game, and was a member of the 1965 Alberni Athletics who won the Canadian men's basketball championship among many other accomplishments.

The son of Tom and Louise Watts, and grandson of Watty and Lal Watts, Tom is the father of Cindy and Danny Watts, and has many grandchildren as well.

He remained active in athletics for five decades, and worked as a longshoreman in Alberni during four of those decades.

For many years he played basketball for the Somass Eagles, saying "We won every tournament wherever we went."

With his family by his side, Watts watched as his photo and biography were unveiled on the school gymnasium wall, where they will now hang forever in recognition of one of the top athletes to ever come out of the Alberni Valley.