The legend of larger-than-life Bob Wolfrum continues to grow, win after win after win
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
On a steamy July morning, with his players gathered closely around him on a practice field at Wyomissing, Bob Wolfrum was in his element.
It was two months before the football season would kick off. No one was watching, or cheering, or keeping score.
It was just the 73-year-old Wolfrum laying out the rules, running the game, with his teen-age prodigies hanging on every word, following every instruction to a ‘T.’
There were no footballs in sight.
All they had was a thick rope for a game of tug-of-war. The coach split the group into small teams. They went at each other as if it was December and they were playing for a state championship.
They weren’t fine-tuning Wing-T plays or working on footwork or tackling technique; they were following the rules and building a team.
They were learning Wolfrum principles: The importance of everyone pulling in the same direction, of working for the guy in front of you and the guy behind you. They learned that if everyone did their job they would succeed. Together.
No headlines. No scoring records. No rankings. No individual glory.
Team.
That’s the way Bob Wolfrum has coached football for 50 years. That’s the way Wyomissing has won year after year after year.
“He makes it about the whole team and everybody doing the right thing,” said senior wide receiver Ethan Brower. “We don’t question it at all.”
That hasn’t changed one iota over the years; it won’t going forward.
“He’s always a team-first guy,” said Matt Lytle, who quarterbacked Wolfrum’s 1991 and 1993 teams to District 3 championships and went on to play in the NFL. “Everybody’s gotta do his job. No one person’s bigger than the team, nor will they ever be.”
Saturday, after Wyomissing plays Conrad Weiser, it won’t be about team, it’ll be about one guy.
They’ll re-name the Spartans’ longtime home in his honor: Bob Wolfrum Field.
Coach probably won’t like it a whole lot; he doesn’t care to be the center of attention. He’s happiest when he’s off on a practice field, watching his guys run a play over and over again until it’s just right.
Gathered in front of a large crowd, listening to people laud him and his array of accomplishments, being asked to speak about himself, is not Bob Wolfrum’s idea of a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon. He’d rather be sitting in the coach’s room, tossing barbs at the Red Sox and Phillies fans on his staff or listening to old war stories he’s heard a dozen times already.
He relishes the prep time spent with staff and players getting ready for a big game or the challenges a tough opponent and tight contest presents. He likes nothing better than be involved in a real slobbernocker, pads banging, close score, adjusting on the fly as the team across the field does the same. He loves the chess match within the game.
He’s done it better than almost anyone around, and for longer. His resume includes 356 wins over 37 seasons; only one active coach in the state has more wins. Other five others in Pennsylvania history have won more football games.
His Wyomissing teams have had 11 perfect regular seasons, won 19 league or sections titles and 11 district championships. He’s the only Berks football coach to win a PIAA championship.
If you include his wins as an assistant coach, and those as Wyomissing’s baseball coach for 28 seasons, he been part of nearly 800 victories. Not that he could tell you that; he’s not one for such minutiae.
He’s about teaching his guys to play the game the right way. That hasn’t changed in half a century. Little around him has.
“He just never accepted mediocrity,” said Scott Ziegler, a lineman and catcher for Wolfrum in the early 1990’s whose has had two sons come through the program. “You do the same thing over and over again until you get it right, and it wasn’t just get it right once – get it right enough times that he was happy with it.
“He handled everybody the same. Whether you were the No. 1 kid on the team or the 50th, he expected the same from everybody. And he disciplined everybody the same.
“You knew the rules and he expected everybody to adhere by them. He expected a certain standard of character and a certain standard of play. That’s what everyone grew accustomed to, and that’s the way it is today. It’s the same approach over and over. It’s that kind of stability that’s led to a great program.”
Wolfrum was elevated from assistant to head coach in 1987. He took a good program – one that was winning seven and eight games a year and competing for league titles – and made it better. By his third season the Spartans were 12-1. A year later they culminated another 12-win season with their first district title.
Just once in 38 seasons has a Wolfrum team finished with a losing record. That came in 2004; it was 5-6. Only one other time did a Wolfrum team finish .500. That came in 2013, the year after going 16-0.
Wolfrum has coached three future pros: Lytle, lineman Ross Tucker and linebacker Alex Anzalone. He’s coached a handful of Division I players, but really not all that many until recently. Yet the Spartans have been a model of consistency and a fixture in the postseason.
That ability to be consistently good is a Wolfrum hallmark and perhaps the thing he is most proud of.
“The Army calls it ‘staying within the band of excellence,’ ” said his son Andy, who played running back for his dad, served in the military and has made a career in coaching. “Even though you have a high turnover rate and people move around a lot (you’re able to be consistent).
“That’s the same with football,” Andy Wolfrum said. “Every team is different. Whether they’re loaded (with talent) or they’re not loaded they’re good consistently. They have the ability to operate at a high level no matter who’s in the lineup.
“A lot of those wins and losses come from the off-the-field stuff and the consistency in the program. Anybody can be good for a play; anybody can be good for a day. Can you be good over weeks, months, and years?”
A large part of Wolfrum’s success has come from his ability to get players to want to play their best for him; they don’t want to let him down. Players on his early teams realized his keen understanding of the game and saw his commitment to the them.
“He practices what he preaches,” said Chad Eisenhower, a back in the early 1990’s. “He talked to us about getting better every day and then you hear and see him doing the same things: Going to clinics, talking to college-level coaches, implementing things within the Wing-T that can make us better. When you see him putting the effort in it, then why wouldn’t we in return?”
Eisenhower has three sons in the program. Drew was an All-State defensive back who played on four straight district championship teams before graduating last year. Chase is a sophomore linebacker and the team’s leading rusher and tackler. Brady is an eighth-grader who plays quarterback.
Eisenhower and his wife Kelly moved into the district when the boys were young, in part because he wanted them to have the same football experience he did. He kept his fingers crossed hoping Wolfrum would keep coaching long enough for that to happen.
That’s been a theme within the program for years. His assistant coaches, many of whom played for him, implored him to stick around until their sons came through. You could make up a full team of offspring Wolfrum has coached: Frank Ferrandino’s son Rocky, Steve Brunner’s son Darren, Corbit Babb’s son Nolan, Todd Zechman’s sons Zach and Ben, Bill Hartman’s sons Matt, Kyle and Chase, Jim Delp’s sons Andrew and William, Chris Blickley’s son Evan and others.
“I’ve been really lucky that my boys have gotten to live through the same experience that I had,” Chad Eisenhower said.
Like many other former Wolfrum players, Eisenhower has coached in Wyomissing’s youth program. The same values Wolfrum instilled in them they pass on to their players. Jon Bailey, a former tight end for Wolfrum, is head coach of Wyomissing’s youth flag team. Mighty Mites head coach Mark Macrina, Mites head coach Justin Moyer and Midgets head coach Jason Eisenhower all played in Wolfrum’s system.
The players now arrive at the high school knowing what to fully what to expect from Wolfrum and what he expects of them. They’ve grown up hearing about him and his success and speak of him with reverence. The term icon is often overused, but not in this case. They view him as this larger-than-life figure.
“The myth and the legend grows with each and every passing year,” Chad Eisenhower said. “His body of work demands it. How could you ever question that man?”
Even other coaches speak of Wolfrum with reverence. After ending the Spartans’ record 41-game regular season winning streak last week Cocalico coach Bryan Strohl talked about his admiration for Wolfrum and how he would like to model his program after Wyomissing’s.
‘When I was a little kid, I looked at him like he’s was a celebrity,” said senior linebacker Ryker Jones. “The success he’s had . . . we just know: This guy knows what he’s talking about.”
“It’s a blessing to say that we’ve had the opportunity to play for him,” Brower said. “He has taught us so much, not only with football, but about becoming a good person and doing the right thing. The discipline he’s instilled . . . that’s going to help me throughout my whole life.”
