William Mark Tosheff (June 2, 1926 – October 1, 2011) was an American professional

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. A 6'1" guard, Tosheff played at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

from 1947 to 1951 after a stint with the

U.S. Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

.Michael Schumacher. ''Mr. Basketball: George Mikan, the Minneapolis Lakers, and the Birth of the NBA''. Bloomsbury, 2007. page 274. From 1951 to 1954, he played in the

NBA 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 St ...

as a member of the

Indianapolis Olympians The Indianapolis Olympians were a founding National Basketball Association (NBA) team based in Indianapolis. They were founded in 1949 and folded in 1953. Their home arena was Butler Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler University--now known as Hin ...

and

Milwaukee Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...

, averaging 9.2 points in 203 games. Some sources list him as the 1952 NBA Co-Rookie of the Year (with

Mel Hutchins Melvin Ray Hutchins (November 22, 1928 – December 19, 2018) was an American basketball player. He played professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1951 to 1958. Hutchins was selected by the Tri-Cities Blackhawks with the ...

); however, official NBA guides generally have not included pre-1953 winners. In 1988, Tosheff founded the Pre-1965 NBA Players Association in order to secure fair pension plans for NBA players who were active before 1965. Tosheff lobbied to close a loophole in the NBA pension that granted benefits to post-1965 players with a minimum of three years of service, but required pre-1965 players have five years of service. A

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

resident, Tosheff died in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

from cancer aged 85 on October 1, 2011.Al Hamnik.
NBA pension fighter, Gary native Tosheff, dead at 85
. nwitimes. October 3, 2011. Retrieved on October 3, 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tosheff, Bill 1926 births 2011 deaths American men's basketball players Basketball players from Gary, Indiana Basketball players from San Diego Deaths from cancer in Hawaii Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball players Indianapolis Olympians draft picks Indianapolis Olympians players Milwaukee Hawks players Point guards Shooting guards