Born in Chicago, Oatman didn't start bowling until he was 40 years old, and was the oldest man to win the Rookie of the Year award, as well as the first African American to achieve this feat.
He worked in his mother's health food store before becoming a PBA bowler.
In the 2006–07 season he became the first ever African American PBA Rookie of the Year.
He was survived by his daughter and his father, William H. Oatman III.
This biographical article relating to American ten-pin bowling is a stub.