Missouri State basketball legend Bill Thomas dies at 91
Missouri State announced Sunday that Bears basketball legend Bill Thomas passed away on Saturday at the age of 91.
Thomas helped shape the Bears' basketball program for nearly three decades as a player, assistant coach and the head coach of the Bears for three trips to the NCAA Division II championship game.
As a player, Thomas was a three-year starter after he came to Springfield in 1950. At guard, the 1951 Bears were the MIAA conference runners-up and went on to win league titles in the next two seasons — both teams dominated through the NAIA district playoffs and then played their way through a five-game stretch tow in back-to-back NAIA national titles in 1952 and 1953.
Bill Rowe, director of athletics emeritus, said Thomas kept his love for the Bears' men's basketball program through his final days. The legendary athletics director worked with Thomas when he became a volunteer student assistant as a junior in college. The two, among others, had lunch together every other week in recent years while Thomas kept his men's basketball season tickets for as long as he was physically able.
"The prominence of our program began with those 1952 and 1953 championships," Rowe said in a phone interview on Sunday. "I've told a lot of teams in banquets, not to single out basketball, but it was the highest honor that we've ever received was winning those two championships. It brought in tons from junior high and high school and everyone knew about it. I've always remembered that."
After his playing days, Thomas joined long-time head coach Eddie Matthews' staff as an assistant in 1956 and was on the staff for the 1959 NCAA Division II runner-up squad.
The Buffalo native was promoted to head coach in 1964 when Matthews passed away. For 16 seasons, Thomas led MSU to eight MIAA basketball titles, more than any other coach in the league's history. The Bears won or tied for the conference championship five straight years from 1966 to 1970 and finished second in the NCAA Division II Tournament in 1967, 1969 and 1974.
In his 16 years, Thomas led the Bears to a 265-158 record and was twice named the NABC District Coach of the Year. He was named the College Division National Coach of the Year in 1974 by the NABC.
"A lot of those championships wouldn't be here without him," Rowe said. "It'd be a drastically different historical run without Bill Thomas. He was just a great guy, a great coach who was a true Bear."
In 2015, Thomas became the sixth men's basketball representative to have a jersey retired in his honor at Missouri State — joining the likes of Charlie Spoonhour, Winston Garland, Daryel Garrison, Jerry Anderson and Curtis Perry.
Thomas is also a member of the Missouri State University Athletics Hall of Fame, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame.
Rowe thought back to the early days of watching Thomas be a member of Missouri State's "Fabulous Four." He remembered a "bulldog" on the defensive end who made those better around him. Rowe looked at the relationships that Thomas built with the teammates around him and how those players kept in touch over the next several decades.
That's when Rowe realized, for the first time, what it truly meant to be a Bear.
"I remembered that rapport those guys had together," Rowe said. "It taught me more about what it meant to be a Bear because, for years, those guys never left their closeness. Every reunion we've had, those guys always cared for each other like brothers. I kinda learned from watching what happened back in that time and I still do it today. I've said that's where it all started."
Services for Thomas will be finalized in the coming days through Gorman-Scharpf Funeral Home in Springfield.
Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Bill Thomas, Missouri State basketball legend, dies at 91
