Former Ohio State hoops captain Thomas Williams dies

Former Ohio State men’s basketball captain Thomas Williams died Aug. 19 at the age of 93 in his hometown of Lima, Ohio.

Williams played for the Buckeyes from 1951-53. His three-season career at Ohio State culminated in him serving as captain for the 1953 team.

When all was said and done, he appeared in 65 games, averaging 8.4 points per game along the way. Notably, Williams never lost to Michigan during his playing days. He and the Buckeyes were 4-0 against their rival Wolverines in that span.

Considered one of the top defenders in the Big Ten over the course of his final two seasons, the 6-foot-3 forward was routinely tasked with guarding opponents’ top offensive players. Williams’ head coach at the time, Floyd Stahl, was quoted during the 1953 season saying, “Thomas’s defense is wonderful, and I recall of number of close games being decided because of his defense,” per the program’s release Thursday.

In addition to playing a trio of seasons on the hardwood at Ohio State, he earned a business degree. Then he joined the finance corps of the Army, and he was stationed in Nuremberg, Germany. When he returned to the U.S., he went back to Lima and even took up coaching hoops, including for the Ohio State Lima branch.