He’s been gone for nearly a quarter of a century, but the legacy of 'Whipper' Billy Watson lives on, as do some of his projects.
Born William John Potts in Toronto, Whipper made a name for himself in the professional wrestling circuit after his initial start in Toronto’s amateur circuit, eventually becoming a two-time world champion with both National Wrestling Association and National Wrestling Alliance titles and repeatedly winning the British Empire Heavyweight Championship.
He was an animated figure in the ring, known to use “the Irish Whip” to swing his opponent into the ropes and then throwing him over his back. He was the clean-cut, do-good Canadian hero that countered opponents often billed with villainous monikers in the show of the day that was professional wrestling.
But his legacy lives long past his days as a wrestler. Whipper became known for his contributions to the community, some of which remain active concerns.
It was while recovering from severe leg injuries after being hit by an out-of-control car in the winter of 1971 that prompted Whipper to think about the plight of others with injuries and disabilities. Having spent much of that year in a wheelchair and no longer able to wrestle, he capitalized on his good name and turned his attention to helping others.
“While he was a patient, he had a thing raising money for the kids and we got our whole department involved in it,” recalls Eileen Watson, his physiotherapist in hospital who later became his wife.
In follow-up visits Eileen, who still lives in Newmarket, suggested he might benefit from water therapy and put him in the hospital’s “burn tank.”
“He’s a very big man and he overflowed the tank, it’s in the old department, and the water rolled all the way down into the cafeteria,” she recalls with a laugh.
The following year, the two bumped into each other at the dry cleaner.
“I said, ‘If we had a pool I could have got you going a lot sooner because people react very well to pools.’ And he said: ‘You want a pool, I’ll get you a pool.’
“And I thought, BS, he won’t be doing that. The next thing I know is he’s got a whole group of people together raising money for a pool at the hospital. And it was for here. So the people of Newmarket, Aurora and all the way up, the small towns, to Sutton gave money. People were so generous.”
The rehabilitation pool opened at then York County Hospital in Newmarket in 1976.
Local businessman Joe Persechini, meanwhile, liked the work Whipper was doing for Easter Seals, where Whipper had become director, and in 1976 convinced him to support his Newmarket-area fundraising initiatives.
Persechini was running his self-named fitness centre in Newmarket at the time and launched a walkathon for Easter Seals where Whipper was presented as the speaker, to the delight of the participants. The event lives on as York Region’s longest-running fundraiser for children and youth with physical disabilities, having raised $3.5 million over the years. This year’s event is set to run on May 26 at Newmarket Riverwalk Commons.
“He kind of liked me and took me under his wing,” recalls Persechini. “He was like my teacher, and we became friends after a year or two.
“I had never seen anyone speak from his heart. And he said: ‘Joe, it’s like a wrestling match, after I finish, I’m tired.”
Whipper, he says, became a second father to him. He also became his mentor. Persechini, who later served two terms as a municipal councillor in East Gwillimbury, would watch Whipper in action as he met with people and gave presentations. He recalls later while serving on the York Region police board, being nervous about making his own presentation. He turned his mind to the approach Whipper had adopted, dispensed of the jitters and simply spoke from the heart.
Whipper supported a host of national and community organizations, raising money and recruiting others, often those with high profiles, to become involved.
“He believed in all these things,” said Eileen of Whipper’s many community initiatives from the Whipper Watson Provincial Snow-A-Rama for Timmy, charity golf tournaments and celebrity dinners “Everybody wanted to work with him because it was so much fun.
“He had a mother who did a lot of good, she was with the Red Cross during the Second World War…. That’s where he got his idea of doing good for people.”
Diane Humeniuk found an ally in Whipper during her efforts to build an integrated play park for children of all abilities. Nothing of the kind existed at parks in residential neighbourhoods.
With the space allocated in what was then Quaker Park, the two set out to see it properly equipped so that children of all abilities could play together.
“The most fun was interacting with Whipper,” she recalls.
Humeniuk subsequently wrote a book with the support of the provincial government called The Children's Playground of the Future, with the forward by Whipper.
Sadly, it burned down six years later. Humeniuk is in the process of asking council to consider equipping it, once again, with equipment for children of all abilities.
With Persechini, Whipper participated in telethons at the old CKVR television station in Barrie and other Easter Seals events. But they also turned their attention to other community initiatives, raising funds for the Georgina Cultural Centre and the first CAT scan machine for what is now Southlake Regional Health Centre.
Then there was the Whipper Watson therapeutic pool at the hospital. Thirty years after it opened, there was a campaign to raise another $1.8 million to refurbish the pool. During the height of the pandemic in 2020, Southlake made the decision to close the pool, along with its arthritis program. Together, Eileen and Persechini are determined to see the project revived elsewhere in the community.
Whipper died of a heart attack in Florida in 1990 at the age of 74.
A legacy continues in the name of the former wrestler with the W.J. Watson Public School in Keswick, and the Whipper Billy Watson Park in Newmarket. He was named to the Order of Ontario in 1987 and in 1995 was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
