This is a story about a man of great faith. About a nice guy who finished first instead of last.

We’ll begin in Bonham, Texas.

Head Coach Jerry Moore grew up in this rural farming community where Christianity and Friday night football were the two religions. He was raised by hard-working, blue-collared parents who had been through the Great Depression. 

Moore was a young wide receiver working to reach the heights of local football hero Bill Swoboda, a New York Giants All-Pro linebacker. Moore had just come off his first season with the Bonham High School varsity team, in which his squad finished 0-10. But the winless season didn’t matter to him. He knew he would be better his sophomore year. He would be faster. He would be stronger.

And so would the rest of his team.

“I wanted to play, but I wanted to win,” Moore said. “The coaches that I played for were coaches that had won. One of them only played in two losing games his entire life. It was more than just playing. It was about trying to win and be the best that I could be.”

After not winning a single game for the whole entire 1953 season, M. B. Nelson was hired as head coach. Coach Nelson was tough but he encouraged dedication and a will to win.

The will to win was key to Moore’s success then and now.

It is Wednesday, four days after Appalachian State’s conference win over Chattanooga, and the football team is clumped in a huddle in the middle of the field praying.

No one is moving – they’re focused on praying.

Moore is in the huddle, praying as one with the rest of his football team.

“I think the players respect him,” Assistant Head Coach Scott Satterfield said. “When you respect someone, it doesn’t matter if they yell at you or they whisper to you. When you respect them, you are going to do exactly what they tell you to do, and when you don’t do it, you feel like you let them down. You don’t ever want to let Coach Moore down.”

After the prayer, Moore walks off the field with his slow Texas gait.

He has definitely come a long way since that 0-10 season his freshman year of high school.

Moore’s leap of faith brings him to Appalachian

Moore’s Christian spiritual life has been interwoven with his pursuit of football perfection since he was in high school and as a role model for his players, he doesn’t want to let anyone down — including fans and fellow coaches.

Moore said he believes God brought men into his life when he needed them the most. One person in particular he mentioned is a man that he met when he was a volunteer coach at Arkansas by the name of George Tharell.

Moore considered Tharell to be his spiritual mentor while he was living in Fayetteville, Arkansas. During this point in time, Moore was an unpaid coach who was supporting three kids in college.

The volunteer job put financial strains on his family, but Coach Moore was simply happy just to be back coaching again. He knew the job at Arkansas was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. Under head coach Ken Hatfield, Arkansas had been to a bowl game every year and they had won more than 70 percent of their games.

His wife was okay with his decision because she knew that Moore was excited about being in a competitive environment again. The couple moved into a $200-a-month apartment and Margaret was able to get a teaching job to pay the bills.

It was clear to Hatfield that Moore was a special coach. He knew Moore had worked hard at Texas Tech, and was gifted at working with receivers and the offense. It would only be a matter of time before other teams started uncovering Jerry Moore’s coaching talent.

One night when Moore got home from work, his phone rang. It ended up being an old friend named Jim Garner. Garner was Appalachian State’s athletic director and was offering Moore the head coaching position.

Moore had no idea how to respond.

“Appalachian State called me and I couldn’t pronounce it, I couldn’t spell it and I didn’t know where it was located,” Moore said.

Appalachian State was different than the other campuses Moore had coached at.

Kidd Brewer Stadium held about 15,000 fans at that point in time, which was considerably less than Jones Stadium at Texas Tech. But regardless of its size, Moore felt it was worth taking a leap of faith to coach at Appalachian.

“They didn’t know anything about me or about us,” Moore said. “We were strangers. Everybody on staff but one guy was from west of the Mississippi River. For anybody that comes here from the Southwest, there is acceptability on both parties. I have always enjoyed the students and they have always been very supportive of athletics here.”

Looking at Moore’s career, then and now

Head football coach Jerry Moore went to Appalachian State to coach the Mountaineer football team. He’d get to his office at around 5 a.m. and leave at 9 p.m.

“In this business you better work because everybody in this business works,” ASU Offensive Coordinator Scott Satterfield said. “You have to do everything that you have to do in order to get prepared. He just instilled that ever since I was a player. As a coach, it’s the same way. The three most important things he always says is preparation, preparation, preparation.”

Coach Moore found himself in a tough situation when he first arrived at Appalachian.

Many ASU fans had doubts about Moore because of his poor record at Texas Tech.

Appalachian fans were accustomed to winning teams that made the playoffs each year.
However, Moore was confident that he could continue ASU’s winning ways. He knew he was going to accomplish great things with his new coaching staff, which included current East Carolina Head Coach Ruffin McNeal.

And sure enough, despite losing 52 players from the roster, Coach Moore quelled any doubts about his coaching ability with wins over Gardner — Webb and Wake Forest in Appalachian’s first two games of the season.

Former third-string quarterback D. J. Campbell led ASU’s State to a 9-3 record in 1989. It looked like Coach Moore was going to make it.

On Wednesday, four days after Appalachian State’s conference win over Chattanooga, and the football team is clumped in a huddle in the middle of the field praying.

No one is moving because they are focused on prayer.

Moore is within the huddle, praying as one with the rest of his football team. In a few days, his team will take the field against Costal Carolina and, which they took down 55-14, instead of being one with his players, he will be the one that is leading the charge.

“I think the players respect him,” Satterfield said. “When you respect someone, it doesn’t matter if they yell at you or they whisper to you. When you respect them, you are going to do exactly what they tell you to do, and when you don’t do it, you feel like you let them down. You don’t ever want to let Coach Moore down.”

Moore is the oldest, calmest and most confident man in the huddle. After the prayer, Moore walks off the field with his slow Texas gait.

He has definitely come a long way since that 0-10 season his freshman year of high school.

Moore makes bold gambles, pays off 

After a successful first year of coaching, Appalachian State became Jerry Moore’s home and Moore’s success continued to grow.

He has had 21 winning seasons out of 22 as head coach. He has three FCS championship rings. His team completed an undefeated regular season in 1995.

Coach Moore knew that God had blessed him with an opportunity at ASU. But it wasn’t always easy. Clouds of dissatisfaction were gathering over Boone during the 2003-04 seasons. The team went a combined 13-9 and missed making the playoffs both years. Moore was starting to feel the déjà vu of his Texas Teach days.

But Moore made a bold move by changing his team’s offensive scheme in 2004. The Mountaineers switched from the I-formation to a no-huddle, spread-option look in order to give the offense a change of pace. Moore had traveled to West Virginia, Bowling Green and Utah to scout out teams that were using the spread offense effectively, and learn how it was used at the college level.

It was a gamble. In Appalachian State’s first game using the no-huddle spread offense, the Mountaineers suffered a 53-7 loss to Wyoming. However, from that game on Appalachian’s scoring average significantly increased.

Changing Appalachian State’s offensive scheme was arguably the best decision Moore ever made as a head coach. The spread-option offense stunned Michigan’s defense in 2007, when Appalachian State won 34-32.

“Historically in the playoffs, we couldn’t outscore people,” said Satterfield, who was co-offensive coordinator during Appalachian State’s championship years. “In 05’, 06’, and 07’ we were able to have success because of the change in offense.”

So why will Coach Moore go down as a legend in Appalachian State sports history? Why do Appalachian State fans and players view him so fondly? How did Moore build the house that became known as The Rock?

“He’s driven” Coach Satterfield said. “He is a humble man but a driven man at the same time. He is going to do whatever it takes to get the job done and he has done it throughout his whole career. When his back is against the wall is when he really does his best.”

Story: CHASE ERICKSON, Sports Reporter

Photo Courtesy Appalachian Athletics