March 27, 2008

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- The Southern Conference today named Furman football wide receiver Joe Watson the recipient of one of the league's six postgraduate scholarships for the 2007-08 academic year.

Watson, who was awarded the Bob McCloskey Insurance Graduate Scholarship, was joined among the six honorees by Paladin cross country and track & field runner Page Bridges, who captured the league's David Knight Graduate Scholarship. Furman's two recipients were the most by any school and marked the second consecutive year Paladin student-athletes have captured multiple league scholarships.

A native of Greeneville, Tenn., Watson accumulated a 3.92 grade point average while majoring in political science and was recently inducted into Furman's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. The summa cum laude graduate has volunteered with the Meyer Center for Special Children and the Clubhouse Kids after school program for at-risk youth. He was a four-year letterwinner in football and four-time SoCon Academic Honor Roll honoree.

Watson plans to attend law school at the University of Tennessee and pursue a career as a public defender.