The label “legend” gets applied loosely, these days.
It applies accurately to Mark Wulfemeyer.
Mark Wulfemeyer was the Orange County high school basketball star of the 1970s as a run-and-gun sharpshooting guard at Troy High in Fullerton. He always is among the first names brought up in any debate about the greatest boys basketball player in county history.
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His career average of 27.5 points a game, established 1971-74, was at the time of his graduation the CIF Southern Section record (it now is the ninth-highest in section history. Wulfemeyer, 6-1, averaged 36.5 points a game in his 1973-74 senior season.
Wulfemeyer, 70, passed away this past week, Troy athletic director Chris Blume confirmed Friday (Oct. 23). Information regarding cause of death was unavailable as of Friday morning.
Known for his long-range shooting and his perfect shooting form, Wulfemeyer was the CIF-SS Division 4-A player of the year in 1974. He was the draw when Troy filled gyms wherever the Warriors played. Wulfemeyer was known for his accuracy from 20 feet and well beyond, and people wonder how many more points he would have scored if the 3-point shot, which would not be part of CIF basketball until 1986, was available to him.
Tom Gregory and Glen “Satch” Garson were star basketball players at Troy a couple of years before Wulfemeyer enrolled there. Garson later would play football at Nebraska.
Gregory, who would coach at Savanna, Ayala and Patriot high schools, remembers the first time he met Wulfemeyer.
“It’s the end of my senior year and I’m in the gym shooting around with Glen and in walks these two kids and one of them was Wulfemeyer,” Gregory said. “They said they wanted to play two-on-two against us. I’d never met Wulfemeyer and didn’t know anything about him so we’re laughing at this.
“Now, Glen Garson was a great defender, but this kid (Wulfemeyer) just started using Glen. I said, ‘Satch, you’ve gotta stop this guy.’ Satch says ‘I’m trying, I’m trying,’ and this is a seventh-grade kid at the time.”
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Mike Bokosky, who retired in 2024 as Chapman University men’s basketball coach after 32 seasons, played against Wulfemeyer when Bokosky played at Santa Ana Valley.
“He was born probably 35 years too soon,” Bokosky said. “Because if he played today he would be in the NBA because of the 3-point line that we didn’t have. He had an unbelievable veritical skill, he could shoot at the peak of his jump, he could handle the ball and create his own shot.”
Wulfemeyer also was a standout pitcher at Troy High. He was drafted in the ninth round by the Angels in 1974, signed with the Angels and set aside basketball to pursue a baseball career. Arm injuries limited his progress to Double-A ball in the Angels system, and he was out of baseball at age 23.
After not playing the sport for a year Wulfemeyer did play basketball at USC for Bob Boyd, who coached a disciplined mode of play that might not have been the best fit for Wulfemeyer’s style. He averaged only 5 points a game for the Trojans in two seasons, 1975-76 and 1976-77.
His basketball career ended in 1981 at Marymount College, an NAIA school in Kansas. He later dominated pickup games at Laguna Beach’s Main Beach courts, in the Cal State Fullerton gym and everywhere else he played.
His son Mark Wulfemeyer was an all-league basketball player in the 1990s at El Toro, his grandson Warren Wulfemeyer a varsity baseball infielder at Santa Margarita where he will be a junior this coming spring.
Blume said a Wulfemeyer jersey-retirement ceremony will take place this coming basketball season and that Wulfemeyer will be inducted into the Troy athletics hall of fame when that project is completed in June 2028.
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