Bill Wolski

News Obituary Article

ALPHARETTA: Bill Wolski, 61, Fighting Irish gridder

By HOLLY CRENSHAW

Michigan's brutal winters could have driven an icy wedge between Bill Wolski and his dreams of gridiron glory.

That wasn't the kind of football player he was, though. He was the type that makes movie directors want to cue the music and show what real determination looks like.

"I remember when he was 15 or 16 years old, he would be out in his dad's garage in the middle of winter lifting weights to build himself up," said former Notre Dame football star and broadcaster Jim Morse of Muskegon, Mich. "Even when the temperature was 20 degrees, he was still out there pumping iron at least three days a week."

"There wasn't anything that Bill couldn't do on the field. He could run, he could pass, he could block, he could do anything you wanted him to do. But I think his major ability was his toughness."

That toughness paid off with a record-breaking run at Notre Dame and a spot on the Atlanta Falcons' first team in 1966.

Bad knees may have sidelined his pro career after just a year, but his five touchdowns in a 1965 game still stands as a modern era record at Notre Dame.

William Frank Wolski, 61, of Alpharetta died of melanoma Sunday at Hospice Atlanta. The body was cremated. The memorial Mass is 10 a.m. Friday at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. Byars Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

He was Notre Dame's leading rusher in 1964, during coach Ara Parseghian's still legendary 9-1 debut season. The team was coming off a dismal 2-7 record the previous year.

"Bill was a starting halfback in '64 and '65 and a very tough, hard-nosed running back where most of his yardage was through the middle of the line where the hard yards are," said Phil Sheridan of Glen Rock, N.J., his college roommate and 1965 team captain. "He was a really physical, disciplined player with this burning desire to be the best player he could be."

"Despite that football side, though, he was a very reserved and quiet person," he said.

Mr. Wolski moved to Atlanta after being a Falcons' fifth-round draft pick in 1966. Two games into his second season, he walked away from the game on shattered knees.

He spent the next 38 years as a real estate broker and developer, pulling together tracts of land for investment and residential construction.

"Bill had a vision for instinctively finding where things would be expanding, like Lake Oconee and the north Georgia mountains," said his wife, Carol Wolski. "He would always be there a little ahead of the curve."

Mr. Wolski was the outdoors type whose love of hunting and fishing went back to his Michigan boyhood. He raised horses with his wife and kept his lawn manicured to putting-green perfection.

The only games he'd sit and watch all the way through on TV were Notre Dame games.

"I don't think he knew how to relax," his wife said. "He was very fit, very health-conscious and very disciplined."

Mr. Wolski set his alarm clock to go off at 5:30 every morning. He spent the next hour in his gym, lifting weights with the enthusiasm of a teenager.

Other survivors include a son, William Matthew Wolski of St. Louis; a brother, Jerome Wolski of Muskegon; and a sister, Marilyn Erickson of Discovery Bay, Calif.

© 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution