By Nathan Ham
Appalachian State’s Hall of Fame head coach Jerry Moore will forever have a permanent piece of history honoring him outside of Kidd Brewer Stadium. On Saturday before Appalachian State’s victory over Elon, a special plaza and statue were dedicated to honor Coach Moore’s 24 years as head coach of the Mountaineers.
Moore, 82, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2014 after compiling a career record of 242-135-2 with a record of 215-87 at Appalachian State. Moore helped guide the Mountaineers to 10 Southern Conference Championships (1991, 1995, 1999, 2005-2010, 2012) and three FCS National Championships (2005-2007).
In addition to being named to the College Football Hall of Fame, Moore was also selected as a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2009, the SoCon Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Appalachian State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2015. He was named SoCon Coach of the Year eight times and was a seven-time winner of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Regional Coach of the Year. Moore earned the 2006 Eddie Robinson Award, given to the FCS Coach of the Year.
Moore was born in Bonham, Texas and played wide receiver at Baylor from 1958-1960. His first coaching position came at Corsicana High School before embarking on his college coaching career in 1965 as an assistant at SMU. In 1973, Moore took an assistant position at Nebraska under legendary head coach Tom Osborne. His first head coaching job was at North Texas where he coached for two seasons in 1979 and 1980, compiling an overall record of 11-11. Moore took off to Lubbock, Texas to take over as head coach of Texas Tech in 1981 where he coached until 1985. After being let go as head coach of the Red Raiders, Moore took three years off from coaching before taking an assistant position at Arkansas in 1988. After two seasons with the Razorbacks, Coach Moore took the head coaching position at Appalachian State, and the rest as they say, is history.
The decision to construct the plaza and statue in honor of Moore was first announced in 2019 by Appalachian State Director of Athletics, Doug Gillin. Along with the plaza and statue dedication on Saturday, the Mountaineers wore special 1989-inspired helmets with a gold and white stripe down the middle and white block ‘A’ covering each side.
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