Bill Closs He played collegiately for Rice University. In his final year, he led the Southwest Conference in scoring and was  named an All-American  in 1943.  After graduation, Closs joined the Marine Corps and served in the Pacific during World War II. After a strong  rookie season with Indianapolis in the National Basketball League, Closs signed as player-coach of the Houston entry the newly formed Professional Basketball League of America. The new league folded after just three weeks and Closs returned to the NBL. Closs never attained star status during his six year pro career, but he was a valued player  and still in demand when he decided to retire in 1952 to enter business. Following the conclusion of his professional basketball career, Closs enjoyed over 35 years of success in the sporting goods industry .

Jimmy Clinton had a long, but often tumultuous pro career in basketball. After playing independent ball for five seasons, Clinton was signed by Poughkeepsie of the Hudson River League  in 1909. He averaged nine points a game. During the next year and a half, Clinton established himself as one of the best players in the HRL. When he left the league in the middle of the 1911-12 season to jump to the rival NYSL, it was a fatal blow to the HRL. Clinton played in Kingston for the next  two and half seasons, were he solidified his status as one of basketball biggest stars. Clinton was an intense, confrontational player who just as often was at odds with his teammates as his opponents. Clinton enjoyed the best years of his career playing for Paterson and Bridgeport in the Interstate and Connecticut State Leagues. He was a key member of Paterson’s 1915-16 league championship team which returned to the finals again the next season, but lost. Clinton remained in great demand as a player through the early, 1920s. In the first, frenzied years after World War I, he was active on as many as seven or eight teams each season.  Clinton also was  one of the best semi-pro baseball pitchers of his  era (active 1907-1929). In 1959, he was elected to the semi-pro baseball Hall of Fame.