Brick Community Celebrates Life, Legacy Of Warren Wolf

BRICK, NJ — They gathered in the middle of Keller Memorial Field, like so many postgame huddles, green-and-white jackets next to suits and coats, to remember the man who helped shape so many lives on that patch of green.

It was a fitting ending to the public viewing on Friday for Warren H. Wolf, the beloved Brick Township football coach who died Nov. 22 at the age of 92.

His viewing at Brick Township High School drew more than a thousand people, many of them Wolf's former players. They filled the hallway near the case holding the trophies marking the titles the Dragons won on the field, from the front of the auditorium to the doors that led out of the back of the school to where they ran plays over and over, then down the hallway again to the parking lot filled with cars.

In the auditorium, photos of Wolf lined the wall and mourners stood in line for more than an hour to pay their respects to a man many viewed as a mentor and a second father.

"I never played football until high school," said Roy Williams, a 1984 graduate. "Like everyone else, I wanted to play for Wolf."

"He never believed in yelling," said Leonard P. Andrews, who played for Wolf in 1962. "He'd put his arm around you and talk to you."

"He was my second father," said Donovan Brown, who played offensive line on the 1974 state championship team. "He got me through high school, he got me into Elon (College). He got me my teaching job and he got me my summer job that I still have today."

Brown, who in the summer heads the Brick Township lifeguard patrol, and Dan Duddy, who was Wolf's quarterback in 1972 and '73, both went on to serve as assistants under Wolf. They went on to become good friends.

"For some reason, he reeled Donovan and I in," Duddy said. "After his biological son (Warren Wolf Jr.), he considered him Son No. 2 and me Son No. 3."

But Wolf's influence went beyond just Brick Township.

"When I was coaching at Central, I had two players who couldn't qualify academically to play," Duddy said. The players in question could not afford to pay for the summer school classes, however. Duddy said he was talking with Wolf, and his mentor asked how things were going.

"I told him how these two boys couldn't afford to pay for the summer classes they needed to get eligible, and he paid for it. He stuffed the cash in my pocket," Duddy said.

Later that year, at the All-Shore Football Classic, which highlighted senior players from all across the Shore Conference, Wolf was coaching and saw a player take off for the end zone.

"He asked me who the player was," Duddy said. It was one of the boys whose summer school Wolf had paid for.

"He was a gentleman's gentleman," said Ocean County Freeholder Joe Vicari, who won Wolf's seat on the freeholder board when Wolf won election to the state Assembly. "He epitomized what a public servant should be."

Maurice "Mo" Hill, a Toms River councilman and the mayor-elect, paid his respects as well. Hill worked with Wolf on the Ocean County Board of Health, but also remembered playing against Brick when Hill played for Lakewood in 1962 and 1963. In addition to coaching football, Wolf was a basketball official, Hill said.

"Whenever my dad saw him (Wolf) on a basketball game, he knew we'd have good officiating," he said. "It was a wonderful life serving the community."

That wonderful life was celebrated in the auditorium, in true Brick style. Instead of roses and large sprays of flowers, a large green-and-white helmet made of crysanthemums stood on an easel at the head of Wolf's coffin. At the end of the row, a large portrait of the Brick Dragon, created with mums dyed in green-and-white, with green carnations — the kind you saw at every Brick home game — forming the border of the picture.

There were photos of Wolf and his beloved wife, Peggy, along with son Warren Jr. and daughter Donna, on pedestals near the casket and playing on a slideshow on the screen.

A pack of Doublemint chewing gum, a Chicago Cubs baseball cap, his nameplate from his service as mayor, and a cross, were among the items placed in Wolf's coffin with him.

Mourners gathered in small groups, players and coaches and old friends greeting each other and talking memories of their shared pasts. "Do you remember that play ..." and "Coach said" were common phrases from the scattered conversations.

Later, out on the football field, the players — Duddy and Brown, Pete Panuska and Sam Riello, Dennis Filippone and Len Zdanowicz Jr., who's also the Dragons' current coach and dozens of others from all eras — stood and talked. From the bleachers, the voices could be heard but the message stayed among the group. There was some laughter. There were some tears shed. And there were prayers for the man who had made them all a family.

"The influence is so, so powerful," Duddy said. "That's why this is so massive."

"We're not going to let this culture fade away," Duddy said.

Previous coverage:

• Warren Wolf, Brick Icon, Legendary Football Coach, Dies At 92
• More Than Football: Brick's Warren Wolf Leaves Legacy Of Respect
• Coach, Friend, Mentor: Readers' Memories Of Brick's Warren Wolf
• See It: Brick Icon Warren Wolf In Videos

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