Legendary SC basketball coach Taft Watson dies at 96

South Carolina lost one of its coaching legends.

Former Terrell’s Bay basketball coach Taft Watson died Thursday at the age of 96.

Watson coached boys and girls basketball for 47 years, 38 of them coming at Terrell’s Bay High School in Marion County. According to S.C. High School League records, Taft won 1,481 games and accomplished something that might not be duplicated in state history again.

Watson led both Terrell’s Bay basketball teams to a state title on the same day. On March 12, 1994, the school's girls won the Class A title over McBee, 43-40. He then guided his boys’ basketball team to a win over Williston-Elko in which it rallied from a 15-point deficit.

“I prayed and asked the Lord for both my teams to win on the same day,” Watson told the Morning News. “I figured it would never happen.”

Taft won seven state titles (five girls and two boys) and 35 conference titles. He was inducted to the S.C. Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame, S.C. Athletic Administrators Association Hall of Fame, S.C. Athletic Hall of Fame and the National Federation of High Schools Hall of Fame.

Born in Green Sea, Watson raised in Loris before settling in Marion County. He played high school basketball at Mullins High School and at Benedict College for one year in 1940.

Watson left Benedict to serve in the Marine Corps but returned to the college and graduated from there. He started coaching in Loris before landing at Terrell’s Bay in the 1950s.

Watson’s story was made into a book “More than a Coach” and later into a movie, shown locally last year. In 2017, he was honored at the MLK Bash in Columbia.

This story was originally published March 16, 2018 at 11:13 AM with the headline "Legendary SC basketball coach Taft Watson dies at 96."