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Ted Watts - Sports Artist

Ted Watts with "color studies" for the Oklahoma Football Mural
Oswego Studio - November 1998
Studio Photo/Thom Watts

Ted Watts has virtually painted his way into the forefront of contemporary artists with a no-nonsense approach to his favorite subject ... sports. . .while creating his graphics in the relative obscurity of Oswego, Kansas (population 2,046).

Along the way the small town artist with the big city talent has almost anonymously become one of the most popular and prolific portrait painters and illustrators in American history.

He is the only artist alive to have painted art gallery portraits of every one of the Heisman Trophy winners and cover illustrations for three NCAA Basketball Championships ‘Final Four’ event program covers.

Watts’ Catalogue Raisonné contains everything from logos, cartoons and drawings for stadium cups, T-shirts and postcards to elaborately detailed sports venue murals.

Numbers: During his forty year professional career, Watts' sports art production "statistics" have been prodigious. He has completed over 6,000 pieces of finished art.

Among that number, Watts has done over 1,250 book, magazine, game program and media guide cover illustrations (including 65 national award winners as selected by CoSIDA from 1973-2008), 1,500 plus display paintings and portraits, 600 posters and calendars and 95 limited edition art prints.

Clients: His client list includes the United States Olympic Committee, the National Collegiate Athletic Association and over 150 college and university clients from coast-to-coast. Twenty-six professional sports teams and fifteen national sports publications are included among 250 plus other patrons of Watts' studio over the past 37 years.

Halls of Fame: His works hang in the College Football Hall of Fame, South Bend, IN; Pro Football Hall of Fame, Canton, OH; Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY; Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield, MA; and USA Wrestling Hall of Fame, Stillwater, OK. Fifteen colleges and universities exhibit permanent collections of his paintings. Replicas of Watts' most noteworthy art are permanently archived by the Kansas Collection in Leonard H. Axe Library on the campus of Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas.

Noteworthy: His name is most recognized nationally for the stunning 74 art portrait series of "The Heisman Trophy Winners" on display in the College Football Hall of Fame - South Bend, IN; a panoramic 33' x 10' Oklahoma Sooners Football historical mural in the Switzer Center on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, OK; and a 172 portrait series prepared for the University of Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame displays at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, KS.

Tribute: It is no wonder that Sports Illustrated senior writer Douglas S. Looney once said, "On college campuses, Ted Watts is easily the best known sports artist in the land..." in a artist's profile article about the versatile Kansan.

Pioneer: The 66-year old former football and track athlete from Miami, Oklahoma has long been considered a pioneer for transforming college sports art publicity from a cartoon dominated market during the 1950s and ‘60s to an illustration art preference on campuses during the last quarter of the twentieth century.

Today: Watts is among the last of a dying breed of classically trained traditional media artists whose Old Masters art style, techniques and art materials applications separate themselves from the computer-slick illustrations of twenty-first century digital artists and the multitude of photo shop craftsmen who populate the art marketplace these days.

Late Start: At Age 27, Watts was unpublished as a professional artist. Two years later, he had opened his own free lance art studio specializing in sports illustrations and drawings prepared specifically for college and university sports information and athletic departments.

First Work: Ted’s first published work with sports as the primary theme appeared as a regular feature on the sports page of The Coffeyville (KS) Journal beginning in November 1970. By May 1971, Watts had begun "moonlighting" as a free-lance artist from his home studio, producing sports art for collegiate clients.

Sports Art Start: When the demand for his sports art works increased, Watts left the security of a salaried job as a combination newspaper advertising manager/sports writer for Oswego’s weekly newspaper to begin his own art business.

Watts paints Heisman Trophy Winner portrait of Chris Weinke, QB-Florida State: 2000 HTW
Oswego Studio - June 2001
Pittsburg Morning Sun Photo/Ray Brecheisen

Heisman Trophy Winners: On August 18, 1996, Watts' art series of then-61 past Heisman Trophy winners was unveiled for feature display in the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Indiana. He has updated the series annually. The 2007 Heisman Trophy Winner, Florida QB, Tim Tebow's portrait is his latest. The Tebow art was unveiled Friday July 18, 2008 in South Bend in conjunction with the Hall's 2008 Enshrinement Festival Weekend. A portrait of Sam Bradford, Oklahoma quarterback, the 2008 winner, will join the gallery during the summer of 2009.

Major Collegiate Exhibits:Over the years, Hall of Fame portrait and display painting series have been completed for eleven NCAA Universities: Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, Texas Tech, South Carolina, Oral Roberts, the United States Military Academy (ARMY) and his alma mater, Pittsburg State (KS).

Murals: His first mural was a 33' x 9'-6" tribute to Oklahoma Sooners Football, completed in November 1998 and updated in 2002 and 2005. That art is displayed in the Barry Switzer Center at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on the OU campus in Norman. In August 2000, Watts completed an historical mural tribute to TCU Horned Frog Football on display in the John Justin Center on TCU's Fort Worth, Texas campus. His third (and largest mural), a 78' x 10' tribute to Wichita State Baseball was unveiled at Eck Stadium on the WSU campus in Wichita, KS in March 2004.

Triple Self Portrait: After Norman Rockwell's February 13, 1960 Saturday Evening Post Cover

About the Artist: Watts was born December 12, 1942 in Anthony, Kansas. He is a 1960 graduate of Miami (OK) High School. He received his AA degree from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in Miami where he studied under famed Oklahoma muralist and lithographer, Charles Banks Wilson. He transferred to Pittsburg (KS) State University in the fall of 1962 to complete his degree requirements for a planned career in the field of art.

Pittsburg State Honors: Watts graduated from Pittsburg State in January 1966 and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (BFA 1966) that May.

He was voted as an Outstanding Young Alumnus of PSU (1976); named a PSU Meritorious Achievement Award winner (1988) and enshrined as a member of PSU's Athletic Hall of Fame (1999). In addition, he is a past president of the Pittsburg State Alumni Association (1982-83) and was a charter member of the PSU Athletic Advisory Committee.

Military: While a senior at PSU, Watts joined the Kansas Army National Guard in 1965. He served on active duty in the US Army in 1966-67 rising to the rank of infantry platoon sergeant E-5 and when deactivated, served in the KARNG until being honorably discharged in January 1972. During this time, Watts worked in the fields of advertising, sales and newspaper production for three Oswego-area companies before opening his own business in May 1972. He gained experience in a variety of art related fields that included: product illustration, architectural rendering, commercial art, graphic design, photography, copywriting, feature writing, printing, newspaper illustration and cartooning.

Studio: The artist has been the sole proprietor of his own independent free-lance art studio since May 2, 1972. His office and studio archives are located in the Blair-Watts Building in beautiful and historic downtown Oswego, Kansas.

Personal: Watts and his wife, Faye (née Newbanks) were married August 26, 1967 and have lived in Oswego all of their married life. They have two sons, Thom Watts, his wife Sarah and granddaughter, Lily; and Brad Watts - all of Pittsburg, Kansas.

Today: Watts has always been known by the public and the media more for his portraiture, detailed compositions and distinctive trademark "lightning bolt" artistic signature than his rare public appearances. Notoriously reclusive, he seldom leaves the friendly confines of the four-state area of Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas preferring to work on art projects at home rather than travel.

2009: Recently, Ted has been cataloguing his archived original art, prints and collectibles; working on fine art projects for 'favored collegiate clients' and developing a portfolio of non-sports theme paintings for family and friends.

He is currently writing and illustrating three sports art book projects while assisting Faye, Thom and Brad with the administration of their family owned graphic arts publishing company; and putting the finishing touches on a private hometown sports art gallery/museum scheduled for completion in May.

Bio by Bryce O'Shea
Last Updated January 2009
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