Moos
Continued from Page 1A
the Duck players.
Friends are especially impor
tant to Moos. When you’re in a po
sition of power the way he is, it’s
easy to feel isolated from those
around you. Moos says he does his
best to keep in contact with
friends from the old days, but his
job makes it difficult to keep close
with them. It’s something he says
he thinks about a lot. So it’s not
surprising that he will always take
extra time to care for an old friend
who asks a favor of him — even on
game day.
"I certainly don't have many op
portunities to speak with many
old friends,” Moos says. “A lot of
times I just feel like I’m engulfed
with my job here.”
Which is why Washington
State’s Rose Bowl campaign last
season was a special moment for
Moos. At halftime of the Cougars'
21-16 loss to then-No. 1 Michigan,
Moos was able to reunite with
many of his old teammates from
that 1972 team.
1:35 p.m.
Moos was supposed to meet with
local women’s basketball recruits
and their families for a short time
before speaking at a pregame buffet
in the Pittman Room at the east end
of the Casanova Center. Every Sat
urday, he will meet with recruits
from a different sport. The previous
weekend it was women’s tennis;
the week before that it was track.
However, Oregon’s head
women’s basketball coach Jody
Runge is close to 25 minutes late,
and Moos is biding his time by
watching the California-UCLA
football game on the television.
Moos tries to relax, he leans back
in his chair, but he is antsy. Runge
is late, and now the day's itinerary,
which is calculated days in ad
vance, has been thrown off.
1:50 p.m.
An assistant coach from the
women’s basketball team arrives
at Moos’ office with close to 30 re
cruits and their families. Moos
greets them outside his office door
smiling. He shakes fathers’ hands
as he leads the group down a corri
dor to a small conference room.
“I want everyone in this room to
know that they are special,” Moos
says in a booming voice as the
group enters the room. “You’ve all
worked very hard to get here, and
you should be proud of that. I re
member back to my own experi
ences, and the fondest memories I
have are from being involved with
athletics while in college."
Every time Moos addresses a
group of student athletes he re
flects on his football days. He says
that experience allows him to bet
ter understand the challenges stu
dent-athletes face and the impor
tant relationships between players
and their coaches.
“I think it lends credibility to
what I do,” Moos says. “I think the
athletes respect that I’ve already
been through a lot of what they’re
going through."
At Washington State, Moos was
known as a cerebral football play
er. Unlike a lot of offensive line
men during his day, Moos studied
game film and took pride in un
derstanding the complexities of
the Cougar offense. He didn't just
understand his role on the team,
Moos understood everybody's
role. He says his greatest virtue as a
player was his wi 11 i ngness to work
hard and prepare for every detail.
That attention to detail is evi
dent in almost everything he does
as athletic director. Itineraries are
to be followed to the letter. If he is
running late, Moos always phones
ahead so people know exactly
where he is and when they can ex
pect him.
2:25 p.m.
Moos is standing in the hallway
that connects the kitchen with the
Pittman Room’s pregame celebra
tion. The Pittman Room is to the
Casanova Center what the grand
ballroom was to the Titanic —
walk-ins will be promptly shown
the door.
^_I
Wendv Fuller/Emerald
Moos speaks to University donors in the Pittman Room at the Casanova Center Oct. 24.
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Wendy Fuller /Emerald
Bill Moos speaks to a group of recruits for the basketball team and their families in conference room near his office.
Today the room is host to 400 of
the University’s most illustrious
donors and alumni. Ed and Elaine
Moshofsky, University President
Dave Frohnmayer, members of the
Pape family, former NFL standout
J.J. Birden, Today Show host Ann
Curry. All are guests of the athletic
department because they fill dif
ferent and vital roles at this Uni
versity.
Just minutes before Moos is in
troduced on stage he is ap
proached by an elderly green-and
yellow-clad donor.
“We have a check for you today,
Bill,” she says. “But I’m afraid it’s
not very much this time.”
“That’s OK,” Moos says, bend
ing down to give her a bear hug.
Moos hears his name men
tioned on stage and shuffles off.
Donors are the real most valu
able players in college athletics.
The Pittman Room is celebrating
two things today: the Ducks’ No.
12 national ranking, which has
them an eight-and-a-half point fa
vorite at home against USC, and
all the financial contributions
donors like these have made over
the years.
“If you would have told anyone
in this room 10 years ago that
they’d be sitting here about to
watch a Duck team that is nearly a
10-point favorite in midseason
against USC, people would’ve
thought you were crazy,” Moos
says to the smiling, cheerful
crowd. "The days of the haves and
the have-nots are gone. The days
of schools recruiting players just
so they didn’t have to play against
them are gone.”
Nearly 10 years ago the NCAA
reduced the total number of schol
arships for a football program to
85. Before that time, college foot
ball enjoyed about as much parity
as the Roman Empire. Notre
Dame, USC, Alabama — these
were the kings of college football.
When they lost games, it wasn’t
considered an upset. It was more
like a national day of mourning.
But scholarship limitations have
leveled the playing field. Moos
says Oregon’s remarkable success
in the 1990s is a direct result.
“It has brought parity to college
football because the schools with
the best locations can’t attract all
the quality players,” he says.
30 minutes before kick-off
Security to Moos’ palatial sky
box suite is tight. A press box pass
and two passes hand delivered by
Moos himself are not enough to
get an unescorted trip to the top of
Autzen Stadium.
A man and woman enter the
suite. The woman walks to her as
signed seat in front of the box; the
flannel-dressed man goes to the
kitchen and orders a Jack and Coke.
The suite has reserved seating
for Moos, his wife, Kendra, one of
his three daughters, his six
month-old son Benjamin and
about 20 guests. Vice President
Dan Williams and his wife, Mau
reen, are regulars, as is Moos’ sec
retary Debbie Nankivell.
“Nothing is ever hidden,”
Nankivell says about Moos. “He’s
genuine. That makes him very
easy to get along with.”
Nankivell arrived at Oregon in
1995, the same year as Moos, but
both say they know what it’s like
to be involved with athletic de
partments that don’t bring in the
money that Oregon does.
"It really makes you appreciate
what you’ve got,” Moos says. “I’ve
had to travel on 12-hour bus rides
to Ogden, Utah, and places like
that. It really makes you appreci
ate the luxuries of playing in a
conference like the Pac-10.”
Moos graduated from Washing
ton State in 1973. The following
year, Moos worked as an intern in
Washington, D.C., which he says
proved to be quite an amazing ex
perience when the Watergate
scandal started to unfold. In the
late winter of 1974, Moos assumed
a new position as deputy director
of community and congressional
relations at the U.S. Capitol. His
new position gave him an oppor
tunity to sit in on many of the Wa
tergate meetings in the House and
the Senate, but Moos says this job
was most valuable to him because
it provided him with the perfect
arena to work on his public rela
tions skills, which would serve
him best later down the road.
After his internship was com
pleted in 1975, Moos returned to
the Northwest to go into business
with three of his friends building
restaurants. He worked with them
for about the next eight years be
fore getting the job that would
change his life.
In 1982, Moos was hired as di
rector of development at Washing
ton State by Sam Jankovich, who
was impressed by Moos’ public re
lations savvy and good business
sense. After five very successful
years in player development, Moos
jumped to assistant athletic direc
tor where he supervised all of the
department’s external operations.
In 1990, Moos took over the ath
letic department at Montana,
where he would build the football
and men’s basketball programs to
two of the most successful in Divi
sion I-AA in a very short time.
Moos spearheaded several pro
jects that included stadium expan
sion, facility renovations and im
provements to the university’s
tennis courts, locker rooms and
soccer fields.
Moos says the key to improving
Montana’s athletic programs 10
years ago is the same as improving
Oregon’s today: fund raising.
Oregon 17, USC13,15 seconds to go
in the fourth quarter
With 15 seconds to go in the
game and Oregon grinding the ball
down the Trojans’ throat, Moos
leaps from his seat and grabs his
coat. This is his favorite part of the
day. Win or lose. Moos makes his
way down to the playing field
through the student section to
thank them for coming. He shakes
hands and flashes smiles. The stu
dents appear startled to see him
but always rush to shake his hand.
Moos is very much at home. As
the students count down the wan
ing seconds of the game, Moos
shuffles down the Autzen Stadi
um steps to try to catch Oregon
head coach Mike Bellotti before he
exits the field.
Seven ... six ... five ... four ...
the students count, and Moop is
wedged in behind a large group of
them at the base of the stadium. He
is smiling, and the rain begins to
fall, and he bounces up and down
in unison with the students to cel
ebrate Oregon’s victory.
When the final gun sounds,
Moos explodes onto the playing
field, but Bellotti has already made
his way to the locker room. Moos
looks toward the evaporated stu
dent section and smiles as Oregon
football players one by one come
up to him and shake his hand.
He is as much a part of today’s
victory as any of them.
©resonWCmeralij
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