Written by Eric Moore with the aid of Beth Moore
Saturdays in Midland presented themselves as days to ride bikes all over town hanging out with friends, looking to pick up a game of baseball or football. It all depended on who showed up, and where, but the property where the Moore boys lived on Louisiana fit the bill for both sports because of its immense size, so most of the time they ended up there.
Eric first started playing football at San Jacinto Junior High in the 7th grade. The group of guys he played with (and remembers the most) were Jody Givens, Rodney Satterwhite, Knox Nunnally, Billy Owens, and Sammy Vaughn. A new junior high (Alamo) opened at the beginning of their 8th grade, but luckily most of them were still able to play together. In the 9th grade they all reunited to attend Midland High School and once again play together. They received strong, excellent coaching from Coach Selbo during their junior high years due to his taking several of the strong players under his wing and instilling good skills in them. He went on to coach at Lee High School in the fall of 1961 when a second high school was built.
A new rule was implemented the beginning of their freshman year that allowed freshmen to play varsity football. Eric, Jody Givens, and Rodney Satterwhite were the only ones chosen that first year. Tailback and halfback were the positions Eric played most of his high school years. Besides football Eric was able to participate in several sports in high school – track, baseball, swimming, and tennis, to name a few, but he was always available to help John and all the younger guys improve their skills … after all, they had a lot of catching up to do.
Eric and John attended high school summer football practice together the summer before Eric’s junior and John’s freshman year. Eric played several positions but at one particular time he was punting and, as usual, John followed suit. Whatever Eric did, John did, so he also became a punter. The two were put on separate teams and John was chosen to punt to Eric. On one particular day he punted the ball to Eric with perfect precision and alignment. Eric caught the ball, ran the entire length of the left side of the field behind the screen, and was headed for a touchdown. John saw his chance! He was his team’s last hope of stopping Eric! He set himself up in Eric’s lane, crouched down with both hands open wide, grinning from ear to ear in anticipation. When Eric saw John looming, he lowered his shoulder, faked to the left, totally ran over him, knocking him to the ground on his back, and scored! When John came to, he said, “WHAT??!!! WHAT JUST HAPPENED??!!!“ He was in utter shock! “That didn’t just happen!!! I HAD HIM!!” Not only was John’s ego completely crushed that he wasn’t able to take him DOWN, his bruised pride was totally shattered… That moment, in Eric’s opinion, was John’s introduction to NEVER trying to take down a senior, much less an older brother. They never forgot that moment … and through the years John continually tried to “take down” his older brother (unsuccessfully I might add). Even into their late fifties John tried to wrestle Eric and take him down, but all John could manage was to “sit” on Eric and hold him down with his weight if he caught him off guard.