[2] A native of Evansville, Indiana, Doerner attended Mackey High School and was a stand-out basketball player.

[2] He guided Evansville to the 1942 NAIA Division I men's basketball tournament where they would lose in the second round.

[2] Doerner became the first Evansville player to receive All-America status when he was honored as a consensus Second Team All-American selection.

After college he played in the NBL, the only viable professional basketball league in the United States at the time.

From 1942 to 1946, Doerner played on the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and won two league championships.