PORTLAND, Maine — John Wolfgram, the winningest varsity coach in Maine high school football history, has announced his retirement.
The 68-year-old Wolfgram, who spent the last 10 years as head coach at Cheverus of Portland, concluded his career with a 309-92-1 record and 10 state championships over his 40 seasons at the high school level.
The Marblehead, Massachusetts, native, an English teacher at Cheverus, came to Maine during the late 1960s to attend the University of Maine. He also played center for the Black Bears football team before graduating in 1970.
Wolfgram entered the coaching ranks a year later at Madison High School, where he guided the Bulldogs to a 29-10 record over four seasons and won the Class C state championship in 1974.
He became head coach at Gardiner in 1975 and the Tigers went 85-27-1 during his 11 seasons in charge, winning Class B state titles in 1979, 1981 and 1985.
Wolfgram followed that with a 15-year tenure at South Portland beginning in 1986 that produced four Class A state championships in 1992, 1995, 1996 and 1999 and an overall record of 123-36. He guided the Red Riots to what was then a state-record 31 consecutive victories from 1995 to 1997.
Wolfgram left the high school ranks in 2001 to begin a five-year stint as an assistant football coach at Bowdoin College in Brunswick before becoming the head coach at Cheverus in 2006.
Wolfgram transformed the Stags into an instant contender, with the team winning back-to-back Class A state championships in 2010 and 2011 and breaking his own record with 34 consecutive victories during a three-year stretch that ended in 2012.
He secured his 300th career victory in October 2014 in one of the more dramatic wins of his career, a 48-41 double-overtime outlasting of Thornton Academy of Saco.
Cheverus finished the 2015 season with a 6-4 record after placing third in the final Class A North standings and then defeating Lewiston in a regional quarterfinal before being ousted by Windham in the semifinals.
Wolfgram compiled a 72-19 record during his decade on the Cheverus sidelines.
His teams also won two other regional championships, at Gardiner in 1978 and at Cheverus in 2013.
His teams went 9-2 in state championship games, with his 1974 Madison squad sharing the Class C crown with Marshwood of South Berwick and Stearns of Millinocket.
He also coached the Gardiner softball team to the 1980 Class A state championship.
Wolfgram was inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.
Follow BDN Portland on Facebook for more Portland coverage.
