Ken Buehler

{{Short description|American basketball player (1919–2019)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}

{{Infobox basketball biography

| name = Ken Buehler

| image =

| image_size =

| caption =

| number =

| position = Forward / center

| height_ft = 6

| height_in = 2

| weight_lb = 185

| birth_date = {{birth date|1919|11|19}}

| birth_place = Edgar, Wisconsin

| death_date = {{death date and age|2019|4|18|1919|11|19}}

| death_place = Rhinelander, Wisconsin

| high_school = Edgar (Edgar, Wisconsin)

| college = Milwaukee (1939–1942)

| debutyear = 1942

| finalyear = 1946

| years1 = 1942–1943,
1946

| team1 = Sheboygan Red Skins

| years2 = 1946

| team2 = Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons

| highlights =

• NBL Rookie of the Year (1943)
• Univ. of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Hall of Fame (1974)

}}

Kenneth Leslie Buehler (November 19, 1919 – April 18, 2019) was an American professional basketball player for the Sheboygan Red Skins and the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons. He played in two seasons for the Red Skins and, after serving in the United States Navy{{cite web|title=Hall of Fame|url=http://mkepanthers.com/hof.aspx?hof=81&path=&kiosk=|accessdate=16 December 2017}} in World War II, Buehler returned to professional basketball and played in eight games for the Pistons.{{cite web| title =Ken Buehler| publisher =Just Sports Stats| year=2014| url =http://www.justsportsstats.com/basketballstatsindex.php?player_id=buehlke01| accessdate = June 27, 2014}}{{cite web| last =Gaynor| first =Brian| title =Ken Buehler: Sheboygan Red Skins| publisher =Sheboygan Press| date =November 27, 2007| url =http://www.apbr.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=878| accessdate =June 27, 2014}} During the 1942–43 season, the Red Skins won the National Basketball League (NBL) championship with Buehler as their third-leading scorer. He averaged 7.5 points per game and was also named that season's NBL Rookie of the Year.{{cite web| title =Ken Buehler NBL Stats| work =basketball-reference.com| publisher =Sports Reference LLC| date =| url =https://www.basketball-reference.com/nbl/players/b/buehlke01n.html| accessdate = June 27, 2014}}{{cite web| title =NBL Rookie of the Year Award Winners| work =basketball-reference.com| publisher =Sports Reference LLC| date =| url =https://www.basketball-reference.com/nbl/awards/roy.html| accessdate = June 27, 2014}}

Upon returning from the war, Buehler played for Sheboygan in three games late in the 1945–46 season. The following season, he played in only eight games for Fort Wayne before retiring from professional basketball due to a knee problem. He then attended Marquette University's dental school and became a dentist in his post-basketball career.{{cite web| last =Huebsch| first =Allen and Jane| title =Edgar: An Illustrated History, 1898–1998| publisher =| year=1998| url =http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=turn&id=WI.Edgar&entity=WI.Edgar.p0095&isize=text| accessdate = June 27, 2014}}

Buehler died in April 2019 at the age of 99 in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.{{cite web| title =Kenneth L. Buehler Obituary| publisher =Nimsgern Funeral and Cremation Services| date = April 23, 2019| url =https://www.nimsgernfuneral.com/obituaries/Kenneth-L-Buehler?obId=4322122#/obituaryInfo| accessdate = June 17, 2019}}{{cite web| title =Kenneth L. Buehler| work =The Lakeland Times| publisher =| date =April 23, 2019| url =http://www.lakelandtimes.com/Content/Obituaries/Obituaries/Article/Kenneth-L-Buehler/17/17/46368| accessdate =June 17, 2019| archive-date =June 17, 2019| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20190617133331/http://www.lakelandtimes.com/Content/Obituaries/Obituaries/Article/Kenneth-L-Buehler/17/17/46368| url-status =dead}}