Born to Coach

ASU Coach Jerry Moore

I was fortunate to grow up in a loving home with parents who were strong disciplinarians. We went to church regularly and they instilled good values in me, including a strong work ethic. I guess you could say I grew up good.

Because I went to church, I knew about Jesus and God and I even got baptized. But, as I think back on it now, I wasn’t really saved. I knew about being good, but I really didn’t know God in a personal way. Now that I know Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I’ve come to realize that there’s just enough difference between being good and being saved, to spend eternity in Hell. That realization is one of the things that motivates me to use my influence to share with others, the difference a real relationship with God can make in a person’s life.

More than a Coach

As I have thought about my life and upbringing, one thing I’ve come to appreciate is the impact that other men have made upon my life. There have been key people along the way who didn’t just teach me about football, but taught me about life and set a good example for me to follow. Because of that, I want to be the same way for those young men who God brings into my life. In other words, I don’t just want to coach a winning football team, I want to have a positive impact on the souls of the young men who play for ASU. You don’t just accidentally win championships, and I think that a key ingredient to our success has been our concern for our players as people and not just their athletic ability.

The first man, besides my dad, who made a strong impression on me was my high school football coach in Bouham, Texas. His name was M.B. Nelson and he became my coach after my freshman year when my team went 0 and 10. We were so bad, about the only thing we had to be excited about was winning the coin toss. Even though I started my freshman year, I didn’t know one thing about discipline, hard work, and technique, until Coach Nelson came along. He was more than a coach, he was like a father to all of us on that team. He was so good at what he did, he molded us into a team that was undefeated my Junior and Senior years. High School football in Texas is huge, so that was no small accomplishment. From the time Coach Nelson came into my life, it solidified in me the desire to be a head coach some day. As I think back on my years in football, I honestly think he was the best I’ve ever seen at teaching the fundamentals and instilling the type of values in us as young men that it takes to win. He was more than a coach, he was like a father to all of us on the team. Besides this, he set a great example for us in the way he lived his life. He was my Sunday School teacher and a leader in our community. He didn’t just change the team, he changed the school and the town.

Giving God Control

After high school, I went to Baylor University where I played wide receiver for the football team. This was another positive experience for me in terms of determining my future in football, but the very best thing about Baylor was meeting a beautiful girl named Margaret Starnes. She used to sit beside my roommate in chapel and when I began to show interest in her, she let me know real quick that if I was going to date her, we were going to go to church. When I went home with her to meet her family, their commitment to Christ really made a positive impression on me. It wasn’t long before I realized that this was the girl I wanted to marry and we did so in the springtime of my Junior year at Baylor.

After Baylor, I tried out for the Dallas Cowboys where I was cut by coach Tom Loudry. It was then that I got a call from my high school position coach who wanted me to be his assistant at Corsciana High School in Corsciana, Texas. I went from there to assistant coaching at Southern Meth. University in Dallas, and from there to the University of Nebraska where I was privileged to be with another very positive influence in my life, Coach Tom Osborne. In my seven years there, I learned a lot about football, but I was also impressed by Tom’s example and by his demeanor with the players. I had originally met Tom at a Fellowship Christian Athletes meeting that I went to when I was at SMU. He was the first coach who I had seen offer devotions for the players who wanted it. In fact, it was at that FCA conference, where I met Coach Osborne, that I experienced something profound in my relationship with Christ. The effect of being around so many men who loved God and were openly devoted to Him challenged me. I remember coming home from that conference, getting on my knees in my bedroom and asking God to take complete control of my life. When I got off my knees I knew something had happened deep in my heart and ever since that time I’ve tried to be as much of a servant as I could.

Becoming a Coach

My first head coach opportunity came when I was offered the job at North Texas, this in turn opened the door for me to become the coach at Texas Tech where they were struggling to rebuild their football program. I was there from 1981 to 1985 and was pleased with the progress we were making. We were just a few bad breaks away from having a winning season and we played very well against some tough teams. Because of this, I was excited about our potential for next year and felt we were on the verge of a break-through. But, the athletic director obviously didn’t feel the same way, because he called me into his office before our last game to inform me that I wouldn’t be coming back for the next season. This was a devastating blow to me, my coaching staff, and our families. Though I immediately got offers to coach at other places, I turned them down because Margaret and I didn’t want to move our daughter from her school.

For 18 months, I was completely out of football. I got a job in real estate development where my responsibility was to travel all over the U.S. to find contractors to build developments. As part of courting these potential builders, we would treat them to golf at some of the finest clubs around. Here I was making more money than I ‘d ever made in coaching, playing golf at some of the best courses you could imagine and I was miserable. There were times that I would literally cry myself to sleep thinking how I wasn’t like Coach Nelson anymore.

Margaret saw how miserable I was and she encouraged me to try to get back in coaching. I called Coach Osborne and some other football folks to get my name circulated again. That’s when Coach Hattfield of Arkansas called to ask me to be a volunteer coach for him. Being a volunteer coach means you don’t make any money, so you can imagine how apprehensive I was about that. But Margaret, who is a great school teacher, said, “I can teach and we can make it.” So, with her encouragement I took the job, got paid nothing, but had the thrill of being a part of winning the South West Conference Championship with Arkansas that year. Because of that, Coach Hatfield was going to offer me a paid position, but that’s when ASU called.

The Greatest Thrill of Coaching

The athletic director at ASU back then was Jim Garner. He knew me from our days in the same staff at Texas Tech. Though I’d never heard of ASU and didn’t know where Boone was I jumped at the chance to be a head coach again. I honestly felt as if this was my last chance in coaching. Little did I know how things would turn out here in Boone. I look back and it’s interesting to see how God put all the pieces of the puzzle together to allow us to do what we’ve done here.

I could talk about beating Michigan or about winning 3 national championships, but I can honestly say that my greatest thrill in coaching is seeing young men develop and grow and change for the better. To have some kind of role in being a godly example and influence to those players and others is an honor and a privilege for which I’m extremely grateful.

This article was originally written for the Winter 2008 Edition of The Journey magazine. For more stories on Coach Jerry Moore, check out the Summer 2013 Edition of The Journey magazine.