Tennessee basketball VFL and All-American Dr. Ed Wiener died peacefully Sunday in Memphis. He was 87.
A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Wiener (pronounced WEE-nuhr) was a standout forward for the Volunteers under head coach Emmett Lowery from 1952-55. He led Tennessee in both scoring and rebounding as a sophomore in 1953 and then earned consecutive All-American honors from Converse in 1954 and 1955.
He was the first of five total Tennessee basketball All-Americans who hailed from the state of New York.
Wiener increased his scoring average every year he was in Knoxville and was a first-team All-SEC selection during his senior season. In 73 career games as a Vol, the 6-3, 185-pound forward averaged 16.6 points per game. He was honored as Tennessee’s SEC Legend at the 2014 SEC Tournament in Atlanta.
Wiener—who, interestingly, did not play high school basketball—wore No. 19 during his time at Tennessee and was just the third Vol ever to reach the 1,000-point milestone. He currently ranks 36th on Tennessee’s all-time scoring list with 1,212 career points.
In the middle of his collegiate career, he helped lead the United States to gold at the 1953 Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv, Israel.
He played alongside eventual Hall of Famers Tom Gola and Jack Twyman in the 1955 East-West All-Star Game in Kansas City and also played on a college all-star team that toured with the famous Harlem Globetrotters that same year.
He was selected by the Philadelphia Warriors in the fourth round of the 1955 NBA Draft (25th overall pick).
After serving in the U.S. Army at Fort Devens in Massachusetts, Wiener started his own dental practice in Memphis, which he operated for 55 years.
On June 21, he and his wife, Rochelle, celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary.
His son, Craig Wiener, was a member of the Tennessee basketball team during the 1979-80 season.
-UT Athletics
