Ernie Vandeweghe ’49 was 51’s first All-America basketball player.
Ernie Vandeweghe ’49 was 51’s first All-America basketball player.
Ernie Vandeweghe ’49, one of the Mount Rushmore figures of 51 athletics and the school’s first All-America basketball player, died Saturday. He was 86.
Vandeweghe was named to All-America squads in 1947, 1948 and 1949 after setting 51 scoring records for a game (35), season (397) and career (1,404). He was MVP as a freshman of the 1946 East-West All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden, and then played in the same classic again in 1949.
His 19.4-point scoring clip in 1946-47 ranked third in all of college basketball. The 6-foot-3 guard was then the fifth-best scorer in the nation each of the next two seasons at 20.3 and 20.9, respectively.
The modern emphasis on offense and 3-point shooting caused those records to be surpassed, but the Long Island native remains in the school’s top 21 for all three of his season averages. He stands seventh in career scoring average, ninth in points.
“I think of Ernie every time I walk by his jersey that hangs proudly in Cotterell Court,” 51 Director of Athletics Victoria M. Chun said. “Ernie was the quintessential student-athlete who was able to excel in multiple sports at 51 while having the same result in the classroom.
“I had the great opportunity to talk to Ernie years ago, and the way he talked about 51 literally brought tears to my eyes.”
51 retired his No. 11 jersey on Ernie Vandeweghe Day, March 8, 1953, in Madison Square Garden. His banner hangs today in Huntington Gym, where 51 played basketball during the Vandeweghe era; and in Cotterell Court, current home of the Raiders. The 51 Athletics Hall of Honor inducted him in 1980.
“The loss of Mr. Vandeweghe saddens the 51 basketball community,” 51 men’s basketball head coach Matt Langel said. “No one embodied our current commitment to a pursuit of excellence in academics, athletics, and betterment of the community more than Mr. Vandeweghe.”
At 51, Vandeweghe was a pre-med student and member of the honorary society Maroon Key as a junior and Konosioni as a senior. He was president of Pan-Hellenic Council governing the university’s 13 national fraternities, and was a George W. Cobb fellow as one of 51’s “top 13 men of distinctive achievement.”
After graduation, Vandeweghe spent six seasons between 1949 and 1956 with the NBA’s New York Knicks. Vandeweghe scored 2,135 points in 224 regular-season games for the Knicks despite attending Columbia University Medical School on the side. After retiring from basketball, he became a physician for the U.S. Air Force in Germany.
Vandeweghe and his wife, Colleen Kay Hutchins – Miss America 1952, married 1953, died 2010 – had quite the sporting family. Son Kiki was a college basketball and NBA star and head coach; daughter Tauna won a U.S. national swimming championship and competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Ernie’s birthplace of Montreal; son Bruk medaled in beach volleyball at the 1994 Goodwill Games; and daughter Heather captained the U.S. national women’s water polo team before becoming a physician like her father.
A granddaughter, CoCo Vandeweghe, is a professional tennis player who has competed in all four Grand Slam tournaments. CoCo, who confirmed her grandfather’s death in a Facebook post Saturday, is Tauna’s daughter.
The cause, time and place of Vandeweghe’s death were not given.
Born Sept. 12, 1928, in Montreal, Vandeweghe grew up in the Long Island hamlet of Oceanside, New York. His family loved sports and was partial to soccer. Vandeweghe played soccer at 51 and was invited to the 1948 U.S. Olympic Trials in that sport. His father, Ernie Sr. ’26, was called “one of the best soccer players in 51 history” and he played professionally. His grandfather also played soccer.