Former Tennessee Vols basketball player, Memphis dentist Ed Wiener dies at 87

Ed Wiener, who came from New York to Tennessee and became a two-time All-American for the Vols, died Sunday. The longtime Memphis dentist was 87. 

Wiener said he learned the game of basketball at a YMCA in Brooklyn because the coaches of his high school team were on strike.

“I never needed a coach to get me up for a game,” he told the News Sentinel in a 2004 interview. “I played every single game like it was the last game of my life. When I walked on the court, it was me and him. And that’s it. And I was always satisfied.”

Wiener arrived at UT  in 1952 under coach Emmett Lowery.

Wiener, a 6-foot-3 forward, led the Vols in scoring and rebounding as a sophomore in 1953, and he earned consecutive All-American honors from Converse in 1954 and 1955. He was the first of five Tennessee basketball players from New York to earn All-American honors. The others were Bernard King, Ernie Grunfeld, Howard Wood and Tobias Harris. 

Wiener was a first-team All-SEC selection during his senior season.

During the 1951-52 season, the Vols went to Atlanta for a game against Georgia Tech. Former teammate Hank Bertelkamp told the News Sentinel in a 2001 story that Wiener and J.D. Byington lit a few matches to set off the hotel's alarm system. Fire trucks came racing to the scene, and one of the Vols had an asthma attack in the excitement and was unable to play in the game. Meanwhile, Lowery had to go to night court to get Byington off the hook.

Wiener was the third player in school history to break the 1,000-point mark in his career. He ranks No. 36 on the all-time scoring list with 1,212 points. He averaged 16.6 points per game in 73 career games.

He was selected No. 25 overall by the Philadelphia Warriors in the fourth round of the 1955 NBA Draft.

Wiener served in the Army at Fort Devens in Massachusetts until 1962, when he moved to Memphis to establish his own dental practice, now known as "The 901 Dentist."

He retired from dentistry in 2017 after a 55-year career.

He and his wife, Rochelle, celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary on June 21. His son, Craig, was a member of the Tennessee basketball team from 1979-80.