J . C . Watts Julius Caesar " J . C . " Watts , Jr . ( born November 18 , 1957 ) is an American politician from Oklahoma who was a college football quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners and professionally in the Canadian Football League . Watts served in the U . S . House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003 as a Republican , representing the 4th congressional district in south - central Oklahoma . After leaving Congress he established a lobbying and consulting firm , served on corporate boards , and worked as a political commentator . Watts was born and raised in Eufaula , Oklahoma , in a rural impoverished neighborhood . After being one of the first children to attend an integrated elementary school , he became a high school quarterback and gained a football scholarship for the University of Oklahoma . He graduated 1981 with a degree in journalism and became a football player in the Canadian Football League until his retirement in 1986 . Watts became a Baptist minister and was elected in 1990 to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission as the first African American in Oklahoma to win statewide office . He successfully ran for Congress in 1994 and was reelected to three additional terms with increasing vote margins . Watts delivered the Republican response to Bill Clinton ' s 1997 State of the Union address and was elected Chair of the House Republican Conference in 1998 . He retired in 2003 and turned to lobbying and business work . Early life and career . Watts was born in Eufaula in McIntosh County , Oklahoma to J . C . " Buddy " Watts , Sr . , and Helen Watts ( d . 1992 ) . His father was a Baptist minister , cattle trader , the first black police officer in Eufaula , and a member of the Eufaula City Council . His mother was a homemaker . Watts is the fifth of six children and grew up in a poor rural African American neighborhood . He was one of two black children who integrated the Jefferson Davis Elementary School in Eufaula and the first black quarterback at Eufaula High School . In high school , Watts fathered a daughter with a white female , causing a scandal . Their families decided against an interracial marriage because of contemporary racial attitudes and Watts ' family took care of the child until she could be adopted by Watts ' uncle , Wade Watts , a Baptist minister , civil rights leader and head of the Oklahoma division of the NAACP . Watts married Frankie Jones , an African - American with whom he had a second daughter during high school , in 1977 . He graduated in 1976 and attended the University of Oklahoma on a football scholarship . Watts began his college football career as the second - string quarterback and left college twice , but his father convinced him to return and Watts became starting quarterback of the Oklahoma Sooners in 1979 and led them to consecutive Orange Bowl victories . Watts graduated in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism . Watts sought entrance in the National Football League through the New York Jets , but instead entered the Canadian Football League and played for the Ottawa Rough Riders , whom he helped reach the 1981 Grey Cup game . He stayed with the team from 1981 to 1985 and played a season for the Toronto Argonauts before retiring in 1986 . Watts returned to Oklahoma and became a youth minister in Del City and was ordained Baptist minister in 1993 . He is a teetotaler . Watts opened a highway construction company and later cited discontent with government regulation of his business as reason to become candidate for public office . Watts ' family was affiliated with the Democratic Party and his father and uncle Wade Watts were active in the party , but it did not help Watts when he ran for public office and he changed his party affiliation in 1989 , months before his first statewide race . Watts later stated he had first considered changing parties when he covered the 1980 U . S . Senate campaign of Republican Don Nickles . Watts ' father and uncle continued to strongly oppose the Republican party , but supported him . Watts won election to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission in November 1990 for a six - year term as the first black person elected to statewide office in Oklahoma . He served as a member of the commission from 1990 to 1995 and as chairman from 1993 to 1995 .