Wally Wolf

Wallace "Wally" Perry Wolf Jr. (October 2, 1930 – March 12, 1997) was an American attorney, bank director, competition swimmer, water polo player, and Olympic champion. He competed in the 1948, 1952, 1956, and 1960 Summer Olympics.

Personal life

Wolf was born in Los Angeles, California, and was Jewish. He was the son of famous vaudeville music director Rube Wolf Sr. and Fanchonnette Sunny (Rutherford) Wolf. One of the early teams he swam for was the Rube Wolf Swim Club of Los Angeles. He married Carolyn Wyatt and had three children - Wallace Scott, John, and Lori, and the family lived in Manhattan Beach, California. After completing his swimming career he attended USC Law School and became a successful Los Angeles attorney, often to the entertainment industry. In a suspected mishap, his body was found at the bottom of a bridge at San Marcos Pass being retrofitted for an earthquake. He was 66.

Athletic career Wolf excelled at several strokes and events. At Beverly Hills High School (class of 1947), at a race distance which has long since been discontinued, he won the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) 220y-freestyle championship three years in a row, 1945-47 (with times of 2:32.2, 2:23.7, and 2:19.1), the individual medley - 75 yards two years in a row, 1946-47 (with times of 45.7 and 44.4), and was the CIF record holder in 220y-freestyle and individual medley. Around July 1948, prior to the Olympics, at the 1948 US Olympic trials 4x200-meter freestyle relay held in Detroit, several swimmers who had already qualified in other events slowed down in their heats or swam fast in the prelims and scratched themselves for the final to allow more swimmers to qualify for the US Olympic Team. The final four were not officially selected until the Olympic trials in London. Significantly, he was the top qualifier in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay trials final with a time of 2:14 flat.

Apparently the 4x200 relay team had considerable depth that year. Coach Robert Kiphuth held a time trial shortly after the actual Olympic trials with 11 of the swimmers, which had Jimmy McLane as first overall with a time of 2:11.0, Bill Smith and Wally Wolf in 2:11.2, and Wally Ris in 2:12.4. This quartet was used for the Olympic final and won the gold medal. The next four-Eugene Rogers in 2:14.2, Edwin Gilbert in 2:15.4, Robert Gibe in 2:15.6, and William Dudley in 2:15.9, were used in the Olympic prelims. The next three swimmers-Joe Verdeur who came in 2:16.3, Alan Ford in 2:16.4 and George Hoogerhyde in 2:17.4 were not used in the 4x200 freestyle relay.

1952 4x200 Olympic relay team Four years later at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, Wolf once again was the top qualifier in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay at the US Olympic trials. Like the trials in 1948, several top swimmers who had qualified for other events (Ford Konno, Clarke Scholes, William Woolsey, Wayne Moore and Jimmy McLane) swam below their potential in the trials and failed to qualify for the final. Coach Matt Mann used four of the swimmers who actually qualified in the trials for the Olympic prelim. He swam a second heat leg setting a new Olympic record of 2:11.4.

1956, 1960 Summer olympics in Water Polo Wolf was a member of the U.S. men's team that finished fifth in the 1956 water polo tournament in Melbourne, Australia, playing in five matches. in 2008 the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2009, the USC Athletic Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Beverly Hills High Athletes Hall of Fame in 2011, In Water Polo, he was a 1960 AAU All American Selection, and in 1951-2, an All PAC 8 selection while a student the University of Southern California.