Hoop Standout Moo Moore Passes Away
September 12, 2018 02:31 PM | Men's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Harry "Moo" Moore, a member of West Virginia University's great 1952 team that upset NYU in New York City and finished the season ranked ninth in the country, has died.
The younger brother of Arch Moore, former three-term governor of West Virginia, "Moo" Moore had the best game of his Mountaineer career that cold January night in 1952 on college basketball's biggest stage - Madison Square Garden.
He scored 26 points against Howard Cann's sixth-ranked NYU Violets in a stunning, 100-75 upset victory that put Mountaineer basketball back on the map.
"There were writeups in the New York City papers wondering whether or not we were going to wear our sneakers during the game," teammate Jim Sottile once recalled. "They thought we were going to come out and play barefooted."
Instead, it was Moore and All-American teammate Mark Workman who left NYU flat-footed, and the Violets were put in the ridiculous position of having to stall at the end of the game to keep West Virginia from setting the Madison Square Garden scoring record of 103 points.
Moore also played a big role in West Virginia's impressive, 95-74 victory over 19th-ranked Duke at the old Field House earlier that season. The Blue Devils, led by All-American guard Dick Groat, couldn't come up with an answer for Moore's 16 points and 11 rebounds in WVU's surprisingly easy 21-point win over the Blue Devils.
Once again, the Mountaineers played the role of spoiler that night - this time to Groat, who was making his triumphant return to the area after starring at nearby Swissvale High just outside of Pittsburgh.
Later that season, Moore scored a career-high 35 points in West Virginia's 25-point victory over Washington and Lee and finished his senior season with averages of 12.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
West Virginia won the Southern Conference regular season championship and ended the year with a 23-4 record, but failed to make the NCAA Tournament because it lost in controversial fashion to Duke in the Southern Conference Tournament semifinals in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Back then, only conference tournament champions advanced to NCAA Tournament play.
Late in the game, with the score tied at 88 in a back-and-forth affair, there was a scuffle for a loose ball underneath Duke's basket that involved West Virginia's Jim Coalter and three Blue Devil players. Coalter was thrown to the floor, which enabled Duke's Dick Johnson to put in the game-winning basket.
Afterward, WVU coach Red Brown earned high praise from the North Carolina press for diffusing a tense situation by shaking the hand of the official who blew the call, Arnold Heft, and then congratulating the Blue Devil players and coaches.
The next day, Heft admitted that he had made a mistake.
"He said he must have blown the call because everyone tells me I did," the late Mickey Furfari once recalled. Furfari never failed to bring up that game whenever he ran into Groat later on when he was an all-star shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Moore, a 6-foot-2-inch forward, still ranks third in school history in free throw shooting with an 83.9 career percentage.
Moore was chosen in the sixth round by the Syracuse Nationals in the 1952 NBA Draft following his senior season and later served in the U.S. Army infantry from 1953-55.
The Moundsville High product was inducted into the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame in 2007, and six years later, was enshrined in the OVAC Hall of Fame in 2013.
"In Moundsville, Moo was our athletic hero," former WVU director of athletics and Moundsville native Ed Pastilong recalled. "In the summers in Glen Dale, there was a basketball court near the pool, and he would sometimes hang around there. For us younger guys at that time, for him to recognize you and say hello was a pretty big deal.
"He was very active in the community, and it was neat to run into him once in a while on the street corner because he always had time for whomever he came across. He was just a true gentleman," Pastilong said.
Years later, when Pastilong was running the WVU athletic department, Moore would occasionally call to reminisce.
"I always looked forward to those times when Moo would call me, and we would talk about the (Ohio) Valley and Moundsville," Pastilong said. "Whenever I was done talking to Moo, it always put me in a much better mood, no matter what I was dealing with on that particular day."
For four decades, Moore worked in the oil industry as a realtor. Moore's niece, Shelley Moore Capito, is a U.S. Senator representing West Virginia.
He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Alice, a son, Harry Jr., daughters Jennie and Mary, two grandsons and two step-grandchildren.
He was 89.
Plans for a memorial service are pending.
The younger brother of Arch Moore, former three-term governor of West Virginia, "Moo" Moore had the best game of his Mountaineer career that cold January night in 1952 on college basketball's biggest stage - Madison Square Garden.
He scored 26 points against Howard Cann's sixth-ranked NYU Violets in a stunning, 100-75 upset victory that put Mountaineer basketball back on the map.
"There were writeups in the New York City papers wondering whether or not we were going to wear our sneakers during the game," teammate Jim Sottile once recalled. "They thought we were going to come out and play barefooted."
Instead, it was Moore and All-American teammate Mark Workman who left NYU flat-footed, and the Violets were put in the ridiculous position of having to stall at the end of the game to keep West Virginia from setting the Madison Square Garden scoring record of 103 points.
Moore also played a big role in West Virginia's impressive, 95-74 victory over 19th-ranked Duke at the old Field House earlier that season. The Blue Devils, led by All-American guard Dick Groat, couldn't come up with an answer for Moore's 16 points and 11 rebounds in WVU's surprisingly easy 21-point win over the Blue Devils.
Once again, the Mountaineers played the role of spoiler that night - this time to Groat, who was making his triumphant return to the area after starring at nearby Swissvale High just outside of Pittsburgh.
Later that season, Moore scored a career-high 35 points in West Virginia's 25-point victory over Washington and Lee and finished his senior season with averages of 12.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
West Virginia won the Southern Conference regular season championship and ended the year with a 23-4 record, but failed to make the NCAA Tournament because it lost in controversial fashion to Duke in the Southern Conference Tournament semifinals in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Back then, only conference tournament champions advanced to NCAA Tournament play.
Late in the game, with the score tied at 88 in a back-and-forth affair, there was a scuffle for a loose ball underneath Duke's basket that involved West Virginia's Jim Coalter and three Blue Devil players. Coalter was thrown to the floor, which enabled Duke's Dick Johnson to put in the game-winning basket.
Afterward, WVU coach Red Brown earned high praise from the North Carolina press for diffusing a tense situation by shaking the hand of the official who blew the call, Arnold Heft, and then congratulating the Blue Devil players and coaches.
The next day, Heft admitted that he had made a mistake.
"He said he must have blown the call because everyone tells me I did," the late Mickey Furfari once recalled. Furfari never failed to bring up that game whenever he ran into Groat later on when he was an all-star shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Moore, a 6-foot-2-inch forward, still ranks third in school history in free throw shooting with an 83.9 career percentage.
Moore was chosen in the sixth round by the Syracuse Nationals in the 1952 NBA Draft following his senior season and later served in the U.S. Army infantry from 1953-55.
The Moundsville High product was inducted into the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame in 2007, and six years later, was enshrined in the OVAC Hall of Fame in 2013.
"In Moundsville, Moo was our athletic hero," former WVU director of athletics and Moundsville native Ed Pastilong recalled. "In the summers in Glen Dale, there was a basketball court near the pool, and he would sometimes hang around there. For us younger guys at that time, for him to recognize you and say hello was a pretty big deal.
"He was very active in the community, and it was neat to run into him once in a while on the street corner because he always had time for whomever he came across. He was just a true gentleman," Pastilong said.
Years later, when Pastilong was running the WVU athletic department, Moore would occasionally call to reminisce.
"I always looked forward to those times when Moo would call me, and we would talk about the (Ohio) Valley and Moundsville," Pastilong said. "Whenever I was done talking to Moo, it always put me in a much better mood, no matter what I was dealing with on that particular day."
For four decades, Moore worked in the oil industry as a realtor. Moore's niece, Shelley Moore Capito, is a U.S. Senator representing West Virginia.
He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Alice, a son, Harry Jr., daughters Jennie and Mary, two grandsons and two step-grandchildren.
He was 89.
Plans for a memorial service are pending.
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