Mike Wolfgang

Last Friday afternoon I was enjoying watching some pretty good college football and thinking about making the trip to Hershey to watch Manheim Central take on West York in the District 3 Class AAA football championship.
I was comfortable on my recliner just before five o’clock, when my phone rang. A name didn’t come up, rather just a number, so I answered it.
It was one of those phone calls you don’t like to receive. It was a phone call telling you someone had died. That person was former Columbia running back of the early 1970s Mike Wolfgang.
Wolfgang’s death was very unexpected and shocking. I had just seen Mike about two weeks earlier when his officiating crew on its way back from a playoff game between York High and Bishop McDevitt stopped at a local watering hole for some food and drinks after the game.
That night Mike was so full of life, talkative and funny. He was holding court with his six other officials, talking about their game, politics, football in general and talking to the “out of towners” about growing up on Fourth Street in Columbia.
We only got to see Mike do one Columbia game this year. He requested being the”white hat” (referee) for the L-S game, which was Hall of Fame Night at Columbia. He wanted to be there because his high school coach Jack Yohe was being inducted, along with some former teammates.
We talked a little bit that night, before the game and during the game.

For more, read this week's Columbia Ledger.