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Former AD is a 49er Fan for Life
by Doug Krikorian, Long Beach Press-Telegram
December 20, 2007
You see him at courtside for all the 49er sporting events at the Walter
Pyramid.
You see him on the road with the 49er basketball team.
You see him in his box seats for the Dirtbag games at Blair Field.
You see him on the sidelines for most of the 49er teams' practices.
You see him at all the functions pertaining to Long Beach State athletics.
You would think that a fellow who was the school's AD during a turbulent
period - between 1974 and 1982 - would have walked briskly and permanently
away from its athletic programs.
But not 76-year-old Perry Moore.
Indeed, I'm not sure there is a more visible presence on the Long Beach
State athletic scene than this tall, gray-haired, distinguished-looking
gentleman.
"There are few athletic programs that have consistent supporters
that stick with you through thick and thin like Perry Moore," praises
Long Beach State president, Dr. F. King Alexander. "Perry is always
there to support our student athletes."
"Perry is the best booster any university can have," says the
school's former president, Dr. Robert Maxson. "He donates money to
the programs, and is always willing to lend his support. I don't think
I ever took a call from him in which he didn't always ask, `Do you need
help in any way?"'
"Perry became athletic director in the most difficult time in the
school's athletic history," says the former Press-Telegram sports
editor, Jim McCormack, who was the newspaper's 49er beat writer when Moore
arrived in town. "The football and basketball programs were on probation.
"The coaches were frustrated by the limited resources. The boosters
were frustrated. The administration was shell-shocked. There was a constant
state of turmoil, and Perry had to plow through it.
"Considering what Perry went through as an administrator, it would
have been understandable had he taken the first train out of town when
he left as AD. But he has remained unwavering in his support and appreciation
of the athletes and coaches at the school.
"His institutional knowledge has been valuable to us in the 49er
Hall of Fame selection committee as we look at athletes, administrators,
coaches and boosters for possible induction. Perry's been a blessing to
the university."
Perry Moore himself views it from a different perspective.
"I feel pretty blessed to be able to still be a part of the university
because of my tremendous love for it," he says. "I like being
around the kids, seeing them grow, mature, get better. I'm a Long Beach
State guy, and I'll support whoever is coaching the teams and no matter
what the record of a team is."
A native of Belpre, Ohio, where he was quite an athlete - he played football,
basketball and was the state champion in the 220-yard low hurdles in track
- Perry Moore actually attended Ohio State and played freshman football
in 1950 when the Buckeyes' Vic Janowitz won the Heisman Trophy.
He left to join the Navy, and soon the 6-4, 220-pounder was touring around
the Mediterranean on the aircraft carrier USS Franklin Roosevelt and then
took a world tour on another one called the USS Wasp.
"I was a master-at-arms - a military policeman - but what I did mostly
in those days was play basketball," says Moore with a laugh.
"We had a terrific team and won the service championship when we
were in Japan."
After he got out of the Navy in 1954, Moore enrolled at the University
of Maryland where he played basketball for three seasons - he was the
Terrapins' starting center as a junior - and became quite a decathlon
performer, as he finished fifth in the Olympic tryouts in 1956.
He could high jump 6-6, long jump 23-8 and had a best time of 10.6 in
the 100 meters.
"Competed against Rafer Johnson in his first decathlon in Atlantic
City, New Jersey in 1954," he says, referring to the one-time UCLA
track star who won a gold medal in the event in 1960 in Rome. "Jim
Brown also participated in the meet."
After earning a degree in physical education from Maryland in 1958, Moore
became the school's freshman basketball coach, and also got involved in
ticket, concession and fund-raising duties in the school's athletic department.
Soon, he became that quintessential bureaucrat of the collegiate scene
- an assistant athletic director - but departed in 1961 for the University
of Florida to become an assistant coach under Norm Sloan, who later would
guide North Carolina State to a national title.
He held that position for three seasons, and made quite an impression
on a young basketball coach who was at Boca Raton High at the time named
Bob Maxson.
"When Bob Maxson became president at Long Beach State, I never realized
he was the same person who had coached at Boca Raton," says Moore.
"But then when I saw him, I recognized him right away. I couldn't
believe it. What people don't know about Bob Maxson was that he was a
very successful high school basketball coach. I saw a lot of his team's
games because I was trying to recruit a player named Steve Curry who once
scored 66 points for Bob's team."
But Perry Moore soon would give up coaching for good, and resume doing
at Florida what he had done at Maryland - and once again he was an assistant
AD.
"I really enjoyed being involved in the inner workings of an athletic
department," says Moore, who became heavily involved in the school's
football, basketball, baseball and track programs.
"Had Perry not decided to go into athletic administration, I think
he would have become a great basketball coach," says Maxson. "He
was a terrific recruiter, and, obviously, knew the game well."
In 1969, Perry Moore became the AD at Colorado Sate, where he remained
until 1974 when he accepted a similar position at Long Beach State.
The wrath of the NCAA had come down on both the 49ers' football and basketball
teams, and Moore had walked into a tense situation.
"Things were kind of in shambles," he says. "We were $400,000
in debt, which basically was the money we owed back to the NCAA. I had
to make some tough decisions, and some of them weren't popular. But we
did get it turned around."
Moore would remain at his 49er post for eight years, and during his watch
he hired Tex Winter as the men's basketball coach, Dave Curry as the football
coach, Joan Bonvicini as the women's basketball coach, and was heavily
involved in the start of women's programs at the school in track, softball
and soccer.
"There were a lot of memorable moments," says Moore.
In 1982, he became assistant vice president of student affairs at Long
Beach State for Jack Shainline, and would remain at that job until 1988,
when he decided to retire.
He would get married for the second time in 1988, and he and his wife
Pearl traveled extensively until she contracted Lou Gehrig Disease, from
which she passed away in 1994.
He has a son, Perry Moore Jr., a former Long Beach restaurateur who has
been undergoing treatment in Dallas for colon cancer, and daughter, Pamela
Jo Busiek, who lives in Dallas.
He has two grandchildren.
Perry Moore resides alone these days in Leisure World in Seal Beach, but
he will tell you that he's happiest when he's at his other home, Long
Beach State, where this pleasant man can be found so often these days
monitoring the athletic teams with a passionate devotion unmatched by
anyone in the area.
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