Bill Tom Closs (January 8, 1922 – June 6, 2011) was an American
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
player. He played collegiately for
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...
. In his final year, he led the
Southwest Conference
The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...
in scoring and was
All-American in 1943. In 1971 he was inducted into the Rice Athletic Hall of Fame, and in 2003 his basketball jersey was retired.
He joined the Marine Reserve while still at Rice, and was posted in the Fleet Marine Force Pacific Headquarters in Oahu, Hawaii in 1944.
Closs started professional basketball with Indianapolis in 1946. He played for the
Anderson Packers
The Anderson Packers, also known as the Anderson Duffey Packers and the Chief Anderson Meat Packers, were a professional basketball team based in Anderson, Indiana, in the 1940s and 1950s.
The team was founded and owned by brothers Ike W. and Jo ...
(1948–50),
Philadelphia Warriors
The history of the Golden State Warriors began in Philadelphia in 1946. In 1962, the franchise was relocated to San Francisco, California and became known as the San Francisco Warriors until 1971, when its name was changed to the current Golden St ...
(1950–51) and
Fort Wayne Pistons
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
(1951–52) in the
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...
(NBA) for 186 games. Following the conclusion of his professional basketball career, Closs enjoyed over 35 years of success in the sporting goods industry.
Closs died on June 6, 2011.
Career statistics
NBA
Source
Regular season
Playoffs
References
External links
*
NBL stats
1922 births
2011 deaths
All-American college men's basketball players
American men's basketball players
United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II
Anderson Packers players
Basketball players from Texas
Fort Wayne Pistons players
Indianapolis Kautskys players
People from Brazos County, Texas
Philadelphia Warriors players
Professional Basketball League of America players
Rice Owls men's basketball players
Small forwards
Military personnel from Texas
United States Marine Corps reservists
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