Wallace “Wally” LaFountain, the former football coach of Winslow, passed away at the age of 99 on September 19, 2025, and will join the heavenly hosts along with his wife, Audrey Tomah, who first met at the College.
Wally was also a proud U.S. Army veteran, who served in the Infantry Division in the European Theatre of World War II, before attending college and beginning his coaching journey.
He was also a standout athlete at Spring College Football and was named in the “All Decades Team” of the 1940s.
Coaching Journey And Career Milestones
After a successful college career, during which he earned a football reputation and a bachelor’s degree in 1950, he initially began coaching at Bergenfield High School in Bergenfield, New Jersey.
Wally then decided to coach for the Winslow High School football team from 1958 to 1970. He helped the team to clinch the State Championship in his first and third years as well.
Many individuals believed that time was the best era of the Football team in their history, given how well-organized and talented the group was, not to mention the coach. A former player wrote,
WHAT A FOOTBALL TEAM!! These uniforms were BY FAR the best in Winslow Football history! The Black Raider on the helmet!! The rest of the uniform, Spartanly simple! The big numbers on the shoulder! The orange and black wide stripe (not visible) down the side of the pants. All Wally’s design. How I wish that WHS football would return to these uniforms! BLACK and WHITE with orange as a secondary color! This team is loaded with some SERIOUS talent! The PTC was a tough league back then. Today’s squads would have watched in awe. I surely did as a young boy. I idolized these athletes. That served to motivate my teammates and me to earn a PTC trophy in 1976. What heritage!
Another former student also had to confess great things about the late coach. She wrote, “Coach was one of my most favorite people. Such a great guy when we were in school, but also as an adult, he would always stop and talk when I would run into him. Full of warmth.”
The coach was not just involved in football; he also coached the Varsity Baseball team and served as a match official in Little League games for a decade.
He also worked for almost two decades as a baseball official for Maine high schools and played a major part in introducing wrestling to the area.
Wally advocated for and even served as an official for Wrestling, and was also inducted into the Maine Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2012 due to his contributions spanning over 15 years.
After over three decades in coaching, advocating, and educthe ation field, he retired on 1986, hut he still maneged to work closely with Winslow athletics.
In Case You Didn’t Know
- Wally LaFountain was the President of the Maine Interscholastic Wrestling Officials Association for sixteen years.
- He also co-founded the Maine-Nebraska Friendship Series, a multi-wrestling cultural program.
- Wally was inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.
