Brown, Holgorsen express sympathy for Wolfley family – WV MetroNews

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The sudden passing of Dale Wolfley over the weekend left a mark on current and past members of West Virginia’s football program

Wolfley died in his sleep Saturday night at the age of 56. 

A native of Orchard Park, N.Y., Wolfley enjoyed a decorated playing career along the Mountaineers’ offensive line from 1987-1990.

Wolfley later became an offensive graduate assistant under then-head coach Don Nehlen for three seasons and eventually worked as defensive coordinator under his brother and WVU Sports Hall of Famer Ron Wolfley at Phoenix Junior College. 

After serving as head coach at Phoenix a year later, Wolfley worked his way back to Morgantown in 2008 as West Virginia’s football coordinator of player relations for then-head coach Bill Stewart. 

In 2010, Wolfley began to oversee the WVU Varsity Club. He was later co-host of the Mountaineer Sports Network pregame radio show, as well as the Dana Holgorsen and Neal Brown radio shows.

Brown weighed in on Wolfley’s passing Monday during his weekly media session.

“I want to send my condolences to Dale Wolfley’s family. I heard about his passing late yesterday and my first reaction was, you sure? When you think of somebody that has the personality that Wolf did, kind of a bigger than life personality, you don’t think of those people passing,” Brown said. “Still probably in a little bit of shock there. No bigger supporter of West Virginia football than Dale Wolfley. 

“He helped me a lot when I first got here connecting with former players. He really got our 1891 Club off the ground with Coleman [Barnes] and got some people involved back with the program that hadn’t been involved in a long time. He was the link between a lot of the former players and the current team. Even guys before he played, he had built really good relationships with those guys. Through the years, he did a really good job of getting guys back here.”

Wofley’s son Stone played for the Mountaineers from 2015-19. He is now as an assistant coach for Morgantown High School’s football program. Another son, Maverick, enrolled at WVU, but left after a brief time without playing for the Mountaineers and continued his career on the gridiron at Akron and the University of West Florida. He was a participant at WVU’s 2023 Pro Day.

Holgorsen, who will oppose the Mountaineers for the first time Thursday night as the head coach at Houston, closed his Monday media session by expressing sympathy for the Wolfley family.

“My condolences go out to Dale Wolfley’s family. Wolf-man was on my staff. He was a great player there. He was on our staff and worked there forever. He was very important to a lot of people in Mountaineer Nation, so my condolences go out to his family,” Holgorsen said. “He’s going to be missed. I coached two of his kids, so it meant a lot to me. I’m sure he was going to be here. Just wanted to send my condolences to Mountaineer Nation.”

A number of people took to social media to share their thoughts on Wolfley after learning of his passing.