BOONE, N.C. – Jerry Moore won three national championships and posted 215 victories in his 24 seasons as Appalachian State's football coach.
An upset win in his second game established a foundation for future success.
A week after leading App State to a 43-7 home victory against Gardner-Webb in his debut as Sparky Woods' successor, Moore directed the Mountaineers to a 15-10 win at Wake Forest.
The 1989 victory in front of 30,200 fans in Winston-Salem ranks No. 5 on the list of top moments in the App State-Wake Forest series. The countdown will continue this week, with No. 1 being unveiled before the rivalry resumes Saturday afternoon with the Demon Deacons' first-ever visit to Kidd Brewer Stadium.
Prior to becoming a beloved Hall of Fame coach in Boone, Moore was a Texas transplant taking over for Woods, who had left for South Carolina. There was plenty of roster turnover, as well, but the low-scoring win at Wake Forest served as a springboard for a program that had posted a 6-4-1 record the previous year and missed out on a potential playoff berth by tying the Deacons in the 1988 finale.
The victory in Winston-Salem was part of a 9-3 opening act from Moore.
"We were still an iffy product, and then we go up there and beat Wake Forest," Moore recalled this week. "I think that game helped unite and bring us together. When you talk about the Appalachian games that involved me, it's one of the key games I remember because it was such an important game."
The Mountaineers and Deacons were tied 3-3 at halftime, but App State's Ritchie Melchor rushed for 121 of his 139 yards during in the second half. His 67-yard touchdown put Appalachian ahead 9-3 early in the third quarter, and Wake Forest took a 10-9 lead on a 28-yard touchdown reception from Ricky Proehl, whose lengthy time in the NFL included stints as a player and coach for the Carolina Panthers.
App State fullback Kevin Hart's 1-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter set the stage for a tight finish, as the Mountaineers recorded their second interception and sixth takeaway of the game when All-America defensive back Keith Collins picked off a pass in the end zone with 1:12 remaining.
Attempting to run out the clock, App State had to send out freshman Harold Alexander to punt for the 12th time. With 6-foot-6 Rock Thomas delivering a high-speed snap from inside his 20-yard line, the future NFL punter sealed the win by uncorking a kick that drove Proehl inside his 20-yard line in the closing seconds. The punt was officially listed at 61 yards, but archived footage showed it's probably more like 65.
"I remember standing on the sideline and talking to (offensive coordinator) Rob Best in the press box," Moore said. "I made the statement to Rob, 'We're fixing to see what this freshman punter can do.' He hit that ball, and I didn't think it was ever going to come down. It went up in the lights and was an awesome kick."
With future NFL lineman Derrick Graham playing offensive tackle and a young assistant named Ruffin McNeill coaching linebackers, the 1989 team put Moore on a path toward a successful long-term run in Boone and had a lasting mark on the Mountaineers' image.
In search of a way to create recognizable branding for App State football, Moore said he was in his office on a spring day in 1989 when he grabbed a piece of paper and drew a block "A" with "Mountaineers" stretched across the central portion of the letter.
That logo remains a highly visible part of App State athletics.
"I like to sketch and do stuff like that," Moore said. "All the helmets before had different stuff on them, and I thought there's nothing that associates athletics and says it's Appalachian. I struggled with that because Arizona also had the block 'A' at the time, but I put the 'Mountaineers' through the bar.
"Ritchie Melcor made a great run down the sideline (at Wake), and in the Charlotte paper they blew it up big. The picture with the article was Ritchie Melcor running down the sideline, and that 'A' just jumped off the picture. I said, 'We've got something here.' "
