Bill Closs

{{short description|American basketball player}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}

{{Infobox basketball biography

| name = Bill Closs

| image = Bill Closs 1947.jpeg

| caption = Closs, circa 1947

| number =

| position = Small forward

| height_ft = 6

| height_in = 5

| weight_lb = 195

| birth_date = {{birth date|1922|1|8}}

| birth_place = Edge, Texas

| death_date = {{death date and age|2011|6|6|1922|1|8}}

| death_place = Palo Alto, California

| nationality = American

| high_school = Hearne (Hearne, Texas)

| college = Rice (1940–1943)

| career_start = 1949

| career_end = 1952

| career_position = Small forward

| career_number = 11, 16, 14

| years1 = 1946–1948

| team1 = Indianapolis Kautskys

| years2 = 1948–{{nbay|1949|end}}

| team2 = Anderson Packers

| years3 = {{nbay|1950|full=y}}

| team3 = Philadelphia Warriors

| years4 = {{nbay|1951|full=y}}

| team4 = Fort Wayne Pistons

| highlights =

• NBL champion (1949)
• All-NBL Second Team (1949)
• Consensus first-team All-American (1943)
• First-team All-SWC (1943)
• No 22 retired by Rice Owls

| bbr = clossbi01

}}

Bill Tom Closs (January 8, 1922 – June 6, 2011) was an American basketball player. He played collegiately for Rice University. In his final year, he led the Southwest Conference 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 (1948–50), Philadelphia Warriors (1950–51) and Fort Wayne Pistons (1951–52) in the National Basketball Association (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.[http://www.riceowls.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/060811aaa.html Rice Remembers Bill Tom Closs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708225236/http://www.riceowls.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/060811aaa.html |date=2011-07-08 }}, accessed June 17, 2011