Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
WVU Sports Hall of Famer Moss Dies in Florida
August 17, 2018 07:38 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Robert "Bobby" Moss, a member of the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame, has died in Pensacola, Florida, according to a Facebook post made by teammate Gary Bunn earlier today.
"He was just a special guy," WVU quarterback Fred Wyant said this evening. "We were roommates for four years, and he was not only a great player, but he was a good student, too. It was a different time back then. When the game was over everybody went their separate ways."
Moss was part of West Virginia's terrific Split-T backfield in the early 1950s that included Wyant, halfback Joe Marconi and fullback Tommy Allman that helped the Mountaineers reach the 1954 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.
It was the school's first-ever major bowl appearance.
The Huntington native and East Huntington High product was a member of the greatest recruiting class in school history hauled in by coach Art "Pappy" Lewis in 1952 that also included NFL Hall of Famer Sam Huff, future All-Pros Bruce Bosley and Joe Marconi, and Wyant, one of the top option quarterbacks in the country.
"Bobby Moss was all-everything when he played at Huntington East," Wyant said. "He was the biggest name in our recruiting class coming out of high school."
That group posted records of 7-2, 8-2, 8-1 and 8-2 and finished ranked in the Associated Press Top 20 three straight years in 1953, 1954 and 1955 – also a school first.
"George Cafego, an All-American at Tennessee, once said if we played the Single Wing instead of the Split-T with Bobby Moss at flanker, Tommy Allman at fullback, Joe Marconi at blocking back and me at halfback, we would have been the greatest Single Wing backfield of all-time," Wyant recalled.
Moss enjoyed his finest season at WVU in 1955 when he rushed for a Southern Conference-best 807 yards, just 27 yards shy of Maryland All-American Ed Modzelewski's league record of 834 yards set in 1951, and he led the nation with an average of 8.2 yards per carry. That figure is also a school record that still exists 63 years later.
Moss earned first team All-Southern Conference honors in 1955 and played in three different college football all-star games following his senior season, including the Senior Bowl, featuring the game's top players.
After earning his bachelor's degree in business administration, he was selected in the fourth round of the 1956 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Rams, but instead of playing professional football he chose a career in the military.
Moss joined the Navy's flight training program in 1957 and spent 26 years as an officer, later serving in Vietnam. He retired as a commander in 1983 in Pensacola, where he continued to reside until his death.
Moss was inducted into West Virginia University's Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.
His younger brother Jim, also a Mountaineer football player, was an assistant coach at Marshall who died in the tragic plane crash while returning from a game at East Carolina in 1970.
A staged photograph snapped by the late Tony Constantine of Moss, Huff, Bosley, Marconi and Wyant walking off of Mountaineer Field for the final time (pictured above) is one of the most iconic images in school history. Only Wyant and Huff are still living.
Wyant said funeral arrangements for Moss are incomplete.
"He was just a special guy," WVU quarterback Fred Wyant said this evening. "We were roommates for four years, and he was not only a great player, but he was a good student, too. It was a different time back then. When the game was over everybody went their separate ways."
Moss was part of West Virginia's terrific Split-T backfield in the early 1950s that included Wyant, halfback Joe Marconi and fullback Tommy Allman that helped the Mountaineers reach the 1954 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.
It was the school's first-ever major bowl appearance.
The Huntington native and East Huntington High product was a member of the greatest recruiting class in school history hauled in by coach Art "Pappy" Lewis in 1952 that also included NFL Hall of Famer Sam Huff, future All-Pros Bruce Bosley and Joe Marconi, and Wyant, one of the top option quarterbacks in the country.
"Bobby Moss was all-everything when he played at Huntington East," Wyant said. "He was the biggest name in our recruiting class coming out of high school."
That group posted records of 7-2, 8-2, 8-1 and 8-2 and finished ranked in the Associated Press Top 20 three straight years in 1953, 1954 and 1955 – also a school first.
"George Cafego, an All-American at Tennessee, once said if we played the Single Wing instead of the Split-T with Bobby Moss at flanker, Tommy Allman at fullback, Joe Marconi at blocking back and me at halfback, we would have been the greatest Single Wing backfield of all-time," Wyant recalled.
Moss enjoyed his finest season at WVU in 1955 when he rushed for a Southern Conference-best 807 yards, just 27 yards shy of Maryland All-American Ed Modzelewski's league record of 834 yards set in 1951, and he led the nation with an average of 8.2 yards per carry. That figure is also a school record that still exists 63 years later.
Moss earned first team All-Southern Conference honors in 1955 and played in three different college football all-star games following his senior season, including the Senior Bowl, featuring the game's top players.
After earning his bachelor's degree in business administration, he was selected in the fourth round of the 1956 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Rams, but instead of playing professional football he chose a career in the military.
Moss joined the Navy's flight training program in 1957 and spent 26 years as an officer, later serving in Vietnam. He retired as a commander in 1983 in Pensacola, where he continued to reside until his death.
Moss was inducted into West Virginia University's Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.
His younger brother Jim, also a Mountaineer football player, was an assistant coach at Marshall who died in the tragic plane crash while returning from a game at East Carolina in 1970.
A staged photograph snapped by the late Tony Constantine of Moss, Huff, Bosley, Marconi and Wyant walking off of Mountaineer Field for the final time (pictured above) is one of the most iconic images in school history. Only Wyant and Huff are still living.
Wyant said funeral arrangements for Moss are incomplete.
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