Career
He played college basketball for the University of California, Los Angeles Bruins under Coach John Wooden, winning three straight national championships from 1969 through 1971. Ecker played and coached professionally in Germany, where he also became a naturalized citizen in 1977. He also taught at a high school in Germany.
Their son, Danny Ecker, became one of the top German pole vaulters.
Playing basketball at University High in West Los Angeles, Ecker was named to the All-Western League Second Team in 1965. As a senior, he averaged 20.7 points per game and was named to the All-Los Angeles City First Team.
He was also named to the All-Western League First Team along with fellow senior teammate Bill Seibert. Ecker was not a marquee player for University of California, Los Los Angeles Over three championship seasons, he played in nearly every game, though his playing time was limited and typically came when the outcome of the game was already decided.
The skinny, 6-foot-6-inch (198 m) reserve served as a backup at both forward and center.
Ecker entered University of California, Los Angeles as a walk-on without an athletic scholarship, and was a starter on the freshman team in 1966-1967. He was joined in the lineup by Seibert, his former high school teammate. The following season, Ecker redshirted and did not play.
He made the 15-man varsity squad for 1968-1969, and served as the team"s third-string center.
On the first day of practice in 1969-1970, students at University of California, Los Angeles had scheduled a walkout to protest the Vietnam War. Ecker joined teammate Andy Hill, who was also a former high school teammate, in requesting Wooden to cancel practice to support of the antiwar effort, but the coach refused.
With the graduation of three-year starting center Lew Alcindor (known later as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Ecker was promoted to second-string as starter Steve Patterson"s backup. He had entered the game for a jump ball with 16 seconds left after Sidney Wicks had fouled out, and controlled the tip before making the winning shot.
At the annual team banquet after the season, Seibert delivered a speech that was highly critical of Wooden.
Afterwards, the coach was determined to eliminate "all possible sources of trouble" from the team He interrogated Ecker, Hill, and Terry Schofield, advising them to transfer from University of California, Los Angeles if they agreed with Seibert, but all three players insisted that they wished to stay. The team"s top free throw shooter at 88 percent, he made the shots in place of an injured Schofield.
Ecker played in Germany for TuS 04 Leverkusen from 1971 though 1983.
He briefly returned to the United States. for 15 months starting in 1974, when he served as an assistant coach with University of California, Los Los Angeles Ecker later coached in Germany as well. From 1975 though 2010, he was also a high school teacher at Landrat-Lucas-Gymnasium in Opladen.
Ecker became a German citizen in 1977.