Article courtesy of San Angelo Standard-Times
SAN ANGELO, TEXAS - Three weeks after former Angelo State University men's basketball coach Ed Messbarger died, one of his best players — former Rams All-American Ed Wheeler — succumbed to a heart condition early Saturday.
"It was a total shock," said Mike Jones, who was an assistant coach at ASU during Wheeler's career. "I don't know a lot of the details. But I did talk to his brother, Jimmy. Ed had a heart surgery and it was just complications from it. Ed had been sick a little while, and in and out of the hospital. I think he was on a ventilator."
Funeral arrangement details were unavailable at press time.
Wheeler, who was in his 40s, is one of only two All-Americans in the history of the ASU basketball program, along with LaMarshall Corbett. He earned four All-America certificates during his two-year career with the Rams (1992-94) after transferring from Paris Junior College.
As a senior, Wheeler received first-team All-American honors from the Basketball Times and the Division II Bulletin and second-team accolades from Don Hansen's Basketball Gazette.
Wheeler was the Most Valuable Player of the Lone Star Conference and a first-team all-region pick during his senior year.
He's the fourth-leading scorer in school history, with 1,297 career points, and he's second in field goals made behind all-time leading scorer Tim Howard. Wheeler also ranks fifth on the school's all-time rebounding list and is second in blocked shots.
In the 1993-94 season, Wheeler pulled down 296 rebounds, the most in school history in one year.
"How we got Ed was through another former played from up in the Dallas area — Jeff Fudge," Jones said. "He said, 'Big Mike, I've got a kid who can change your program.' And you know how sometimes kids say that and you're like, 'Yeah, right. OK.' And Jeff gave me Ed Wheeler's name."
Jones told Messbarger they should heed Fudge's advice.
"I came down to Dallas to watch this kid play and I'm like, 'Oh, my gosh,' " Jones said. "He was a specimen. He was huge. Physically, I'm just like, 'Oh, my goodness.' "
At first, Jones was concerned that because Wheeler was about 6-foot-5, he would be at a height disadvantage against taller players.
"We opened up that year (1992-93), I think it was with Abilene Christian at their tournament," Jones said. "And we played somebody, I forget who it was. But what I do remember is that they had big guys who were way taller than Ed Wheeler was.
"Ed took them to school. I mean, he flat took them to school. He could score inside. He developed a little short jumper. He was a beast."
Like Jones, Howard has nothing but fond recollections of Wheeler, on and off the court.
"At that time, I was kind of helping them out," Howard said of the ASU team. "He was probably one of the best players I've ever seen in D-II. He was big, strong and physical and pretty much unstoppable inside.
"And as far as a person, he was real friendly with good character. He got along with everybody. I didn't know of any enemies that he had. He was just a really nice guy. It's a sad time for ASU basketball."
One of the legendary stories about the good-natured Wheeler came from when he was at Paris JC and entered a contest to wrestle a bear.
"We had heard this story about Ed beating up a bear," Jones said. "It made big-time news. Ed finally set us down and he said, 'Yeah, that's true.' And I said, 'How'd it happen?' He said he was in the ring with him, and I think the bear swung at him and missed.
"He had a muzzle or something over his mouth so the bear couldn't bite him. When the bear missed, he reached out and grabbed the bear's leg and the bear went down and he got whatever prize it was."
