The WFAN family is saddened by the passing of Rick Wolff, host of our “Sports Edge” show on Sunday mornings, who passed away Monday at age 71 after a brief battle with brain cancer.
Rick’s family announced the news on his blog “Ask Coach Wolff” Tuesday morning.
Wolff came from quite the sports pedigree, as his father, Bob Wolff, spent parts of nine decades in a broadcast booth, including time with the Knicks and Rangers locally, and he is in both the Baseball and Basketball Halls of Fame as a broadcasting award recipient. He was also on the call for national coverage of both Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series and "The Greatest Game Ever Played,” the 1958 NFL Championship Game between the Giants and Colts.
Rick followed in those footsteps after playing baseball at Harvard and being a 33rd-round pick of the Tigers in 1972. He spent two years in the Tigers’ farm system – and made a memorable brief comeback in 1989 to play three games for the White Sox Class-A affiliate – and then coached at both Pace and Mercy College in the NYC area, as well as serving a stint as the Cleveland Indians’ roving sports psychologist.
He turned to broadcasting in the mid-1980s, working for ESPN and MSG before beginning Sports Edge on WFAN in 1998, and he is also the author or co-author of nearly two dozen sports books, many of which touch on the topic his Sunday shows often did: sports parenting.
You can read his family’s post on his passing on AskCoachWolff.com, and the family has asked that if you wish, please make a donation in his memory to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
Rest in Peace, Coach.