Rick Wolff

Rick Wolff, a longtime sportswriter and broadcaster best known in recent years for his work on WFAN, died Monday after a brief battle with brain cancer. He was 71.

Wolff’s family announced his death.

The longtime host of WFAN’s Sunday morning program The Sports Edge, Wolff had many other sports-related jobs through the years. He wrote for many prominent publications, including Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, and USA Today. He also worked as a senior executive for a major publisher, co-founded the Center for Sports Parenting and served as a broadcaster with MSG and ESPN in the 1980s.

He began hosting The Sports Edge in 1998.

Earlier in his life, Wolff played a couple of seasons in the Detroit Tigers minor league system and served as a college baseball coach, turning Mercy College into a nationally ranked NCAA Division II program.

His family posted a tribute to Wolff on his website, Ask Coach Wolff.

“To know Rick or Dad or Pops was to love him,” the family wrote in the tribute. “He was wise, thoughtful, sharp, funny, incredibly smart, and truly just a wonderful person. In his honor, please remember to never give up on your dreams. He never did, even after so many of them had come true.”

The sports world shared condolences for the family and memories of Wolff on Twitter.

[Ask Coach Wolff]

About Arthur Weinstein

Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.