Warren Wolf, Brick Township Football Coach And Icon, Dies At 92

BRICK, NJ — Warren Wolf, the Brick Township icon and legendary coach who stalked the sidelines of Brick Township High School football games for 51 years and who served the community in a myriad of roles, has died. He was 92 years old.

Wolf, who was born in West New York in August 1927, died Friday, Dennis Filippone and Dan Duddy, two of Wolf's former players and longtime friends, confirmed.

Wolf arrived in Brick Township in 1958, four years after the Garden State Parkway came to the town, to take a job as a physical education teacher and head football coach at the then-new high school. He and his wife, Peggy, built a home off Jordan Road in the town that had about 16,000 residents. Then Wolf helped build the town, by shaping generations of young men and shaping the town itself.

Wolf got involved in politics, serving as mayor from 1971 to 1975, and from there was elected to two terms on the Ocean County Board of Freeholders, serving from 1975 to 1981. He spent one term in the state Assembly, from 1981 to 1983. He then served three straight terms on the Brick Township Council.

Back in the early 1970s, the township government was nonpartisan and there was nonstop bickering, Wolf said in a 2007 interview with the Brick Bulletin, part of Greater Media newspapers.

"I spoke to my pastor," he said. "He advised me not to go into politics. But I’ve always believed you have to be at the table to make decisions. Brick was in an uncomfortable, unsavory position. Brick was too good to have that. I wanted to try and change things, and I think we did."

During his years as mayor, the municipal building on Chambers Bridge Road was built and the police department was created. Prior to 1973, New Jersey State Police patrolled the town. Windward Beach Park also was created during Wolf’s administration.

But he was best known for his years spent on the sidelines at Keller Memorial Field, dressed in a gray suit and white shirt with a green tie. Wolf, who played for and was an assistant coach under Joe Coviello, a North Jersey football icon, brought the lessons of his mentor to the Shore.

His successes put Brick Township and Shore Conference football on the map.

"He found a way to get the best out of you," said Filippone, who was a teacher and administrator in the Brick schools for 40 years before retiring earlier this year. Filippone, who played for Wolf in the early 1970s, later served as an assistant coach under his mentor. "On the field or off the field, he had a knack for pushing you to be even better than you thought you could be."

"He always invited us to grow," said Duddy, who played for Wolf in the early 1970s and was the Green Dragons' starting quarterback in 1972 and '73. Duddy went on to become an educator and a coach, most recently at Donovan Catholic, where he still works as a pastoral minister of athletics. "He was the real deal."

Over 51 seasons, the Green Dragons piled up 361 wins, 122 losses and 11 ties. Brick recorded just three seasons under .500 and had eight undefeated seasons, including six perfect records.

The Dragons won six NJSIAA sectional championships on the field, including the first playoff game ever played in New Jersey, a 21-20 win over Camden in the 1974 NJSIAA South Group IV championship. Brick also won 31 Shore Conference divisional championships under Wolf.

He retired as Brick's football coach after the 2008 season, then returned to the sidelines for one final year in 2010 as the coach at Lakewood High School, where he led the Piners to a 3-7 record and helped them break a 33-game winless streak.

"There isn't one day were I don't say, 'What would Coach Wolf say,' " Duddy said. "His impact is undefineable. It will last for generations."

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