Watt, Lester Leighton "Fuzz"

WATT, PRATHER, PENWELL, PETERS, SILVARA, YOUNG, HADLEY, SWANK

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 6/7/2010 at 13:30:13

The Grinnell Herald-Register (Grinnell, Iowa) July 21, 1952

WATT, FORMER PIONEER, TIGER COACH, DIES

Will Hold Funeral Services at Villisca Methodist Church Tues.

Funeral services for Lester Leighton (Fuzz) Watt, 57, former college and high school grid coach here, will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Methodist Church in Villisca.

Watt died at noon Saturday in the Bishop Clarkson hospital in Omaha of acute arthritis and complications.

PIONEER GRIDDER

A graduate of Grinnell College in the class of 1918, Watt earned statewide recognition as quarterback of Pioneer football teams from 1914 to 1918. In 1917, he was named all-state college quarterback by Sec Taylor, Des Moines Register sports editor.

Following his graduation from Grinnell College, Watt coached at Argentine High School in Kansas City and then came to Des Moines where he coached Roosevelt High to their first undefeated season in 1926.

He returned to Grinnell in 1927 as head football coach and guided the destinies of Pioneer gridders until 1935. At the same time, he assisted in coaching basketball and track and in later years coached the college golf teams.

RETURNS TO COACHING

After a few years in the sporting goods sales field, Watt returned to the coaching game as football coach at Grinnell High School in 1940. He coached the Tigers for three seasons before retiring to his farm near Nodaway.

He taught school and coached at Nodaway for a few years, and most recently, he has been teaching in the on-the-farm training program at Corning.

Watt made his niche in the Iowa sporting world, both as a competitor and as a coach. His passing is mourned by his many friends.

SURVIVORS

Survivors include his wife, Florence and two sons, Jimmy and Tommy, of Nodaway; his sisters, Mrs. Elma Prather, Mrs. Helen Penwell and Mrs. Bertha Peters, all of Villisca, Mrs.Leona Silvara of Webb City, Mo., Mrs. Ethel Young of Prescott, Mrs. Nettie Hadley of Winterset, Mrs. Hermia Swank of Keithsburg, Ill.; and his brothers, Lawrence, of Grinnell, Raymond of Washington, D.C., Orville, of Moline, Ill., and Everett, of Kansas City, Kansas.