“You’re never wrong for doing the right thing.” - Mark Twain
In 1985, St. Xavier High School inducted its first athletic Hall of Fame class; Bob Arnszen '65 (Basketball, Baseball, Football), Thomas N. Ballaban - Coach 1951-1977, Richard H. Berning - Coach 1955-1995, Charles H. Keating Jr. '41 (Swimming, Football, Track), and Charles A. Wolf '44 (Basketball, Baseball, Football).
Charley Wolf only went to St. Xavier for two years but left an incredible Bomber legacy with his six boys, Marty, Steve, Greg, Jeff, Dan, and David. A talented football, basketball and baseball player, Charley was named All State in all three sports and attended the University of Notre Dame on football scholarship. Even then, he found a way to impact the college landscape as an athletic director, baseball and basketball coach, the professional basketball landscape as the head coach of both the Cincinnati Royals and Detroit Pistons, and even the professional baseball landscape as both a player for the Cincinnati Reds and, unknowingly, helping to push Tommy LaSorda (manager of the world series champion Dodgers in 1981 and 1988) out of basketball officiating and into major league baseball.
Charley even managed to be a catalyst in the change of the St. Xavier mascot from the Conquerors to the Bombers. In the following excerpt, taken from Coach Specht’s book, 4th and Redemption, Charley’s journey, including these impactful moments were remembered…
Charley Wolf was born in 1926 in Northern Kentucky and spent the majority of his education attending schools in the area. It wasn’t until after his sophomore year at Newport Catholic High School that the Wolf family was introduced to a High School in downtown Cincinnati called St. Xavier.
Actually, at the time, it was a combination of what is now St. Xavier High School and Xavier University. The two schools, founded as a single institution in 1831, make St. X/Xavier the sixth-oldest Catholic educational institution in the nation.
They shared the same building on the corner of Sixth and Sycamore downtown until Xavier moved to its current Evanston campus in 1912 and it wasn’t until 1960 before the Jesuits built the new St. Xavier High campus on North Bend Road in Finneytown.
During his two years at St. Xavier Charley played football, basketball and baseball earning All-State honors in each sport and was rightfully inducted into the first St. Xavier Hall of Fame class in 1985. But even more of a contribution to St. Xavier's "Long Blue Line" might have been the way Charley, a 6-foot-3 athlete who could run, combined with quarterback George Ratterman, who would go on to play at Notre Dame and the Cleveland Browns as Otto Graham's fairly famous backup for Paul Brown, to change the name of St. X High sports teams from Conquerors to Bombers in those war years with their unstoppable "bombs" in the long passing game.
After high school, Charley enlisted in the Navy and spent two years in the service before attending Notre Dame on a football scholarship. An injury derailed his football career and, after only one year at Notre Dame, he spent seven years in baseball with the Cincinnati Reds organization. Unfortunately for Charley, he was a first baseman and would be limited from making the major league club because Reds Hall of Famer, Ted Kluszewski, played the same position.
After his professional baseball career, he received his undergraduate degree from Xavier University and then went on to Chase Law School for a couple of years. He didn’t finish law school opting instead to take a job as the Athletic Director, Head Basketball Coach and Head Baseball Coach at Villa Madonna University (now Thomas More University) in Covington, Kentucky for three years. In 1960 he was named coach of the NBA's Cincinnati Royals, where he coached the legendary Oscar Robertson, Jack Twyman, Wayne Embry, and Jerry Lucas.
Charley also managed to have impact in baseball as he was coaching basketball. According to a Sports Illustrated article, and in his autobiography, former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda told the story of how he got into baseball managing. He credited Charley Wolf. Well, sort of. Tommy said as he was starting his career as an NBA referee, basketball officials would travel with the teams in the preseason and after two of the four games Lasorda was scheduled to call for the Royals, Charley found the foul language of Tommy and his partner too abrasive and refused to have him around his players. He took the issue to the NBA's referees head, Sid Borgia, saying he wanted them out but when asked about it later, Charley said he knew the one guy but had no idea Tommy Lasorda was the other one. Borgia, a former minor league umpire who had had run-ins with Lasorda when he was a minor league player, fired Lasorda and he moved to California to scout for the Dodgers and the rest, as they say, is history.
In 1963, the Cincinnati Royals played the Boston Celtics in the NBA playoffs. Although the Royals home court was the Cincinnati Gardens, one of the new owners of the Gardens booked it for the circus without telling the Royals and one game had to be moved to Xavier University’s 5,000-seat Schmidt Field House. Still, the Royals extended the Celtics to seven games -- the closest they were ever to get to the NBA Finals -- before losing Game 7 in Boston. I’m guessing that wouldn’t happen in the NBA today.
In 1964 Charley left the Royals and took a job as the Detroit Pistons coach. After two years, he made a decision to head home to help raise his three children -- Marty, Steve and Greg. The family moved back to Northern Kentucky and Charley started a career in the auto leasing business. Soon after he added three more boys to the Wolf clan -- Jeff, Dan, and David.
Charley and Loraine, “Sis” Wolf have left an incredible legacy, not only at St, Xavier High School and the “Long Blue Line,” but also in the city of Cincinnati and northern Kentucky!