Ernie Vandeweghe, a leading Knicks player of the early 1950s while he was simultaneously embarking on a career as a physician, and later the patriarch of a three-generation family of athletes, died on Saturday. He was 86.
His death was confirmed by his granddaughter Coco Vandeweghe, a professional tennis player, in a Facebook post. She did not specify where he had died, or the cause.
Vandeweghe’s son Kiki also played for the Knicks. A basketball star at U.C.L.A., Kiki Vandeweghe played forward for 13 seasons in the N.B.A. and was later general manager of the Denver Nuggets and the Nets, whom he also coached in the 2009-10 season.
A former all-American at Colgate University, Ernie Vandeweghe was a scrappy 6-foot-3-inch defensive-minded guard for the Knicks and a good ballhandler who could also hit a timely shot.