Andrew Paul Wolfe (April 29, 1925 – March 10, 2025) was an American

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

player for the

California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...

from 1945 to 1948. As a

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of Post-secondary school, post-secondary educatio ...

in 1945–46, Wolfe led the Golden Bears in scoring at 13.4 points per game en route to the school's first-ever appearance at the NCAA Tournament Final Four. Cal lost to the eventual national champion,

Oklahoma A&M Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known as ...

, 52–35, however. During Wolfe's three-year California career he was named All-Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) every season as well as a consensus Second Team All-American as a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

. Wolfe became the first Cal player to break the 1,000-point threshold, finishing his career with 1,112 points while breaking the former school career record of 725 by nearly 400 points. His teams never finished lower than second place in the PCC South Division, winning it in 1946, and the school went 75–26 overall during that time. Cal's home crowd fans were so notoriously rowdy during Wolfe's era that he was once asked by the game's

officials An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of the ...

to get on the public-address microphone and calm them down, otherwise Cal would have to forfeit. Wolfe later said about the incident, "I didn't know if they'd listen to me or storm the court. Fortunately, they listened." Wolfe was selected in the

1948 BAA Draft The 1948 BAA draft was the second annual draft of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which later merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) to become the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on May 10, 1948, ...

by the

Philadelphia Warriors The history of the Golden State Warriors began in Philadelphia in 1946. In 1962, the franchise was relocated to San Francisco, California and became known as the San Francisco Warriors until 1971, when its name was changed to the current Golden ...

but never played professionally. He instead played AAU basketball for Stewart Chevrolet in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. Wolfe later earned his J.D. from the

University of San Francisco School of Law The University of San Francisco School of Law (USF Law) is the law school of the private University of San Francisco. Established in 1912, it received American Bar Association accreditation in 1935 and joined the Association of American La ...

, and practiced in

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

for the rest of his life up until his retirement in the mid-2000s. He died after a brief hospitalization on March 10, 2025, at the of 99.Andy Wolfe, Cal's First Great Basketball Player, Dies at 99
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe, Andy 1925 births 2025 deaths All-American college men's basketball players Amateur Athletic Union men's basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball players from Oakland, California California Golden Bears men's basketball coaches California Golden Bears men's basketball players California lawyers Forwards (basketball) Guards (basketball) Philadelphia Warriors draft picks Richmond High School (Richmond, California) alumni University of San Francisco School of Law alumni