Remembering Rick Wolff
With great sadness, we announce the death of Rick Wolff on April 10th, 2023 following a brief battle with brain cancer.
A nationally recognized sports parenting expert, Rick was the host of a popular weekly radio show, The Sports Edge, on WFAN in New York City. As his friends, family, and fans can attest, hosting this show was the source of much joy in Rick’s life since it began in 1998. He had been a featured expert on Oprah, ESPN, CNN, ABC’s “NightLine”, ABC’s “20/20”, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Fox & Friends, Fox Business, CNBC, PBS, A&E, MSNBC, Court TV, Lifetime, SportsChannel, the Madison Square Garden Network, as well as dozens of other media outlets.
Rick also enjoyed a storied career in book publishing as a highly sought after New York Times #1 best-selling editor. One of his best-known successes includes Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad, which remained on the New York Times bestseller list for close to seven years. He also edited a number of other major bestsellers, including Jack: Straight from the Gut by Jack Welch, On the Brink by Hank Paulsen, Leading with the Heart by Coach K., How I Built This by Guy Raz, Call Me Ted by Ted Turner, Without Their Permission by Alexis Ohanian, How I Play Golf by Tiger Woods and countless other successful titles.
An author himself, Rick authored or co-authored 18 books including his most recent title, the highly-acclaimed Secrets of Sports Psychology Revealed, published in 2018 by Skyhorse. Rick was also a former professional baseball player in the Detroit Tigers’ organization, who was then hired by the Cleveland Indians as their very first roving sports psychology coach from 1989-94.
Rick graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in psychology and received his master’s degree in psychology with high honors from Long Island University.
While his professional achievements were many, Rick was most proud of his family: his wife of over 40 years, Trish, his son John, his daughter-in-law Karin, his daughter Alyssa, his son-in-law Noah Savage, his daughter Samantha, and his son-in-law Sean O’Connor. He was also the world’s greatest “Pops” to his grandchildren Riley, Skylar, and Henry.
To know Rick or Dad or Pops was to love him. 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.
If you would like to leave a tribute to Rick, please feel free to use the contact form on his website. Donations can be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.