William James Thomas (October 4, 1931 – April 15, 2023) was an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

player and coach. He both played and coached at Southwest Missouri State College (now

Missouri State University Missouri State University (MSU or MO State), formerly Southwest Missouri State University, is a public university in Springfield, Missouri. Founded in 1905 as the Fourth District Normal School, it is the state's second largest university by enr ...

). A

Buffalo, Missouri Buffalo is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, Missouri, United States. The population was 3,290 at the 2020 census. Buffalo is part of the Springfield, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Buffalo was platted in 1841, and ...

native, Thomas played college basketball at Southwest Missouri State in Springfield, where he played as a guard and helped lead the team to NAIA national championships in

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

and

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...

. He returned to the school in 1956 to take an assistant coaching position under head coach Edwin Matthews. When Matthews unexpectedly died in 1964, Thomas was promoted to head coach. Thomas spent 16 seasons as the Bears' coach, compiling a record of 265–158 and winning eight

Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) is a List of NCAA conferences, college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the NCAA Division II, Division II level, headquartered ...

(MIAA) championships, including five in a row from 1966 to 1970. He led the team to three

College Division The NCAA College Division was a historic subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) consisting of member schools competing at a lower level of college sports. The NCAA initially divided schools into a College Division and a ...

(now called Division II) runner-up finishes, in 1967, 1969 and 1974. In 1974, Thomas was named the small college national coach of the year. Thomas retired from coaching after the 1979–80 season but continued to teach physical education at the school until his full retirement in 1997. Thomas died in

Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estimat ...

, on April 15, 2023, at the age of 91.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wothke, Les 1931 births 2023 deaths American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Missouri Basketball players from Missouri College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Missouri State Bears basketball coaches Missouri State Bears basketball players Missouri State University faculty People from Buffalo, Missouri Sportspeople from Springfield, Missouri