basketball coach basketball player
Born in Danville, Kentucky, Woolpert attended high school in Los Los Angeles He subsequently attended Los Angeles Junior College and Loyola University, Los Angeles, where he played basketball for three years and was initiated into the Alpha Delta Gamma National Fraternity.
He is best known for coaching the University of San Francisco Dons to two straight national championships in 1955 and 1956. In 1946, Woolpert was hired as basketball coach for Saint Ignatius High School in San Francisco, California where he posted a 63-29 record in his four years as coach. Upon Pete Newell"s departure for Michigan State University, the University of San Francisco hired Woolpert to succeed Newell.
He assumed both the posts of men"s basketball coach and athletic director
After briefly coaching the San Francisco Saints of the American Basketball League, Woolpert returned to the college ranks in 1962, this time with the University of San Diego. While in San Diego, Woolpert posted a 90-90 record and served as both men"s basketball coach and athletic director
Philosophy Woolpert retired from coaching in 1969. He later settled down in Sequim, Washington and became a school bus driver.
Woolpert died of cancer in 1987.
During his tenure at USF, Woolpert posted a 153-78 record, including a 60-game win streak that at the time was the longest in college basketball (surpassed later by John Wooden"s 88 straight wins at University of California, Los Angeles). USF won the national championship in 1955 and 1956, and finished third in 1957. At the time the youngest college basketball coach to win a national championship, Woolpert also won Coach of the Year honors in 1955 and 1956.
