College Football Hall of Fame
Position: Coach
Years: Mercer (1926-28), LSU (1935-47)
Place of Birth: Jonesboro, TN
Date of Birth: April 30, 1895
Place of Death: Winchester, TN
Date of Death: Nov. 6, 1967
The son of a Baptist minister, Bernie Moore was a man of morals and mayhem. Though it may sound like a contradiction of terms, Moore believed in the highest standards of sportsmanship, yet demanded the utmost in rock-em, sock-em football from his players. With a 83-39-6 record, he served longer (13 years) at Louisiana State than any other coach in the school's previous history. Moore resigned that post in 1947, and became the Commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, a league he won twice as a football coach and 12 times as mentor of the LSU track and field team. His 1933 five-man track squad won the NCAA Championship. Moore saw front-line action during World War I and remained in France after the Armistice to study at Montpelier University. He returned to the United States to coach La Grange High School in La Grange, Georgia, before accepting a position at the University of the South (Sewanee). Mercer University invited Moore to rebuild its program and, while coaching there between 1925 and 1927, he developed two great players - Phoney Smith and Wally Butts. In 1929, Moore moved to LSU as an assistant, replacing Biff Jones as head coach in 1935.
