Throughout the last decade, WSU football fans have seen numerous winning seasons behind coaches Mike Leach and Jake Dickert. But, before this recent success, WSU Coug fans had to endure some of the worst football ever seen on the Palouse. From 2008–11, Paul Wulff led the Cougs to an awful total 9-40 record in his time at WSU.
After four years, he got fired.
Often, Wulff is seen as a horrible coach in the history of WSU football, but there is more to his story than just his performance on the football field. A major driving force of his life and career was his mother’s murder.
ESPN writer Kyle Bonagura investigated the case, looking into the past until the present day. His research and investigation culminated in the 2021 article for ESPN, “The disappearance of Dolores Wulff – A family’s suspicions and 41-year search.”
“Paul was a child [when his] mother went missing for a very long time. The police didn’t really turn up any concrete evidence. There was an assumption from a lot of the family members right away that it was her husband, Paul’s father, that was responsible for her disappearance,” Bonagura said.
Police arrested Wulff’s father seven years later, but the investigation was dropped after facing legal issues.
“After weeks of back and forth and legal maneuvering, the judge ultimately determined that because it took so long for him to be arrested that the prosecution and the police had violated his right to a speedy trial,” Bonagura said.
The case was then dropped and not mentioned for many years after that. Wulff would never have a relationship with his dad due to his suspicion of his father’s involvement in the case.
After 40 years, DNA evidence found that Wulff’s father had indeed killed Wulff’s mother, Bonagura said.
“She was murdered. She was dumped in the water. Carl Wulff has been dead for several years now, so he’ll never ultimately face the legal system, and the case is officially still open up in Woodland, California,” Bonagura stated.
Now 58, Wulff is the head coach at Cal Poly and is leading them to much brighter record than his tenure with the Cougs.
