John Wolf ’69, ‘72L was a fantastic athlete who competed on the football and baseball teams during his undergraduate career. He also was an assistant coach with the football team while earning his law degree after his playing career was over.
Wolf played on the baseball team for two seasons, with injuries cutting short his playing time for Coach Joe Lyles. However, it was on the football field where Wolf’s talents truly shined. He was a three-year varsity starter at linebacker, serving as a team captain for his senior campaign.
Wolf earned a reputation as a fierce competitor while participating with the W&L freshman team in 1965 and he worked himself into one of the top linebackers in the state during his sophomore season with the varsity.
As a junior in 1967, Wolf racked up 134 tackles in a nine-game season en route to receiving the Dan Ray Justice Award as the team’s top defensive player. He went on to earn First Team All-College Athletic Conference and AP First Team All-State honors, as the Generals produced their first winning season in four years.
The press guide for the 1968 season described Wolf as having earned “a reputation as one of the finest linebackers that W&L has ever produced” and he did not disappoint in the year that followed. Despite hobbled by knee surgery, the team captain only reinforced his reputation by once again earning First Team All-CAC honors en route to garnering AP Honorable Mention All-State accolades. Following the season, he was one of 13 Washington and Lee athletes named “Outstanding Athletes of America”.
Off the field, Wolf served as a dorm counselor at W&L and was inducted into the Omicron Delta Kappa national leadership honor society.
After graduation, Wolf enrolled in the W&L School of Law and spent all three years serving as an assistant coach for the football program under the direction of Buck Leslie and Boyd Williams.
His love for Washington and Lee endures and he has been charitable with his time, serving as a member of the W&L Board of Trustees from 2003-2012 and as the board’s liaison to the University Athletics Committee. While serving on the board, he chaired the trustee-appointed committee that produced the “Wolf Report,” which serves as a foundation for the university’s current structure of the intercollegiate athletics program.
Wolf is a recipient of the university’s Distinguished Alumnus Award and law school’s Honorary Order of the Coif.
