In His Time: Produced by Tate Johnson, MocsVision Production Director. Story written by Shane Shoemaker, GoMocs.com writer. Contributors: Chris Goforth, Interview/Historian.

Who was Scrappy Moore?
 
That's a question a lot of you may be asking yourselves. 
 
When many hear the name Scrappy Moore in the contemporary, one could argue that the only acknowledgments or associations to the late head football coach of what was then known as the University of Chattanooga are either that of the Mocs current practice field that is named after him or of the now beloved mockingbird mascot simply known as "Scrappy." However, that still doesn't begin to answer the question, or better yet, truly recognize who Andrew Cecil "Scrappy" Moore was and what he meant to UTC and its history, not to mention the city of Chattanooga.
 
In the southeastern United States, most even to this day know the names of college football greats and hall of famers General Robert Neyland and Bear Bryant for what they accomplished for their universities at Tennessee and Alabama, respectively. Names like those are synonymous with terms like greatness and legendary in the annals of college football. Scrappy Moore is a name we believe deserves the same recognition as those names previously mentioned, along with others. 
 
Thankfully, we were able to conduct many interviews with those who had either engaged with Scrappy at some point or who were alive and/or who had great knowledge of the College Football Hall of Famer, such as Stephen Byrum, who in 2004 wrote a biography on Scrappy — Scrappy: The Life and Legend of Andrew C. "Scrappy" Moore -- Celebrated Collegiate Coach, Man of Unique Character.
 
However, after such a long time without these stories to be retold and recorded in some fashion, it's all but sensible to excuse the effects brought on by the passage of time. Those who are no longer with us are not able to contribute to this project and retell or recreate from their memories the stories that were personable and unique to them. And for those who are still with us, it's understandable that they may have, in retelling their stories, perhaps spoken incidentally with embellishment or lapse. After all, we are telling a story of what is now a bygone era, with our subject, Scrappy Moore, being gone now for 50 years as of this past Memorial Day. 
 
Former All-American defensive back and halfback and UTC hall of famer Jerry Harris said it best while interviewing him for this project: "See, a lot of these things that you're going to hear from these people like me, half of them are probably lies," he said while laughing.
 
With this project, which includes multiple forms of media -- audio, video and written word -- we hope to tell an incredible story about a legendary figure to UTC and the Chattanooga community that should never be forgotten.
 
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Former Mocs' head football coach Scrappy Moore is what most remember when they talk about him. They'll talk about things like his innovation with the X's and O's, his acumen for the game or his willingness to influence his players into the plausibility they could defeat anyone they stepped on the field with — SEC powerhouse or not — no matter how much they may have been outmatched. But before the days he was pacing up and down the Chamberlain Field sidelines, Scrappy Moore was an athlete and a player on many different playing fields himself. He was a good one, too.
 
In Stephen Byrum's 2004 book,  Scrappy: The Life and Legend of Andrew C. "Scrappy" Moore -- Celebrated Collegiate Coach, Man of Unique Character, Byrum stated that the man who grew up in Park Place started his athletic journey early on, playing with the fellow kids in his neighborhood, including with those in a place that was back then known as Onion Bottom. In those days that's where a lot of the youth started making a name for themselves in athletics in the Chattanooga area, Scrappy included. His high school days started at Chattanooga (City) High School, but he would eventually find himself at what was and still is considered one of the best private preparatory schools in the city, McCallie, after he accepted an invitation to the school for his senior year, and later even going through a postgraduate course. 
 
Scrappy took all that time playing sports with the fellow neighborhood kids back at Onion Bottom and advanced his skills while at McCallie where he played and succeeded in basketball, baseball and football. According to "The Pennant," which was the McCallie school yearbook, as a basketball player, playing guard, he "works like a veteran, outguessing his opponents," and "his ability to outwit his opponent when coming under the basket is uncanny and enables him to do his fine work." As a football player, he was "the most skillful end in the South," and was  "a master of aerial football." As a baseball player "he plays a good, fast game of ball at shortstop, stopping everything going or coming his way."
 
McCallie just furthered his roots into the city of Chattanooga and was the real beginning of where Scrappy started showcasing his athletic abilities. But where he particularly caught most people's attention was with his outstanding defensive play as a baseball player. 
 
From Byrum's book: "He developed a reputation for being able to run back into the depths of center field faster than anyone had ever seen on playing fields in Chattanooga. He loved to intimidate runners with his throwing arm." 
 
From 1923-25, Scrappy attended the University of Georgia, where he continued his athletic career playing football and baseball for the Bulldogs, but by his last year, he had a decision to make, and it seemed without any reasonable doubt that a career in sports, whether it be as a player or a coach, was inevitable. Ultimately, Scrappy chose baseball. 
 
It should be taken into context this time period, in Scrappy's time, which has become known as "The Roaring Twenties." The nation was just shortly removed from World War I and was finding its relief in sports. After all, the 1920s is also often referred to as "The Golden Age" of sports, and baseball was at the forefront of that, making the headlines in nearly every newspaper in the country and, more importantly, was being delivered in an all new way through broadcast radio. This was an era that had what many consider to be the most famous sports figure of all time in Babe Ruth. Baseball was wildly popular, and better yet, an established professional sport, unlike the NFL, which was in its infancy at the time. Couple those things along with Scrappy's athletic prowess for the game of baseball and it seemed that he would be wearing a wool cap instead of a leather helmet, playing during the spring and summers instead of the fall and early winters.
 
Scrappy's career playing baseball was nearly a decade's journey through the minor league system starting in 1926, beginning with the Williamsport Grays, and even at one point playing in Toronto, Canada for the Maple Leafs in 1934. However, most of his minor league playing days were spent in Birmingham, Ala., playing for the Barons for four seasons (1929-32). 
 
The 5-foot-11, 165-pound Scrappy was "very nimble and quick," Byrum said, and one not to be tested defensively, as was evidenced since his days at McCallie. Wilbur Kinley of the Chattanooga News in 1933 once labeled him as a "defensive demon." The Barons reasoning for letting the former Georgia Bulldog go had nothing to do with his defense, though, it was his bat. Bob Twinam of the Chattanooga News in May of 1933 wrote, "Wonderful fielder, but weak with the willowworks." 
 
In his entire minor league career, Scrappy was nearly a .300 hitter (.297), but he was still considered inconsistent at the plate, and it's what ultimately kept him from going to the next level. "How many times have you heard someone say, 'Moore would be a cinch to go up [to the Major Leagues] if he could only hit.' And there's truth in that," Kinley wrote in July of 1933.
 
Before the beginning of the 1933 season, Jack Horner of the Chattanooga News wrote that Scrappy almost considered retiring from baseball. He was still in the midst of negotiations with the Barons and even considered playing for the Atlanta Crackers before finally reaching out to fellow Chattanooga legend Joe Engel of the Chattanooga Lookouts and making a deal with the team on April 8, 1933. 
 
The local fandom for Scrappy was so high that July 24 of the same year was deemed "Scrappy Moore Day" that included a ceremony followed by the Lookouts facing the Atlanta Crackers in a doubleheader. The two teams split the day, but Scrappy, in the first game, in five at-bats had three singles and a double, but the Lookouts lost the game 3-2.
 
What may seem odd now, but common back then, was that Scrappy was so beloved by the locals in Chattanooga not just because he was from there, but because he had already been the head football coach of the Mocs dating back to 1931 where he went 9-2 and won the Dixie Conference Championship. So even though it was for only one season, Chattanooga fans got to see Scrappy in a completely different environment, one where he wasn't coaching but playing, and on a baseball field instead of a football field, attempting to will another one of his teams to victory. Locals welcomed him with open arms because it was where he seemed to belong.
 
When Scrappy's contract was up after the 1933 season, fans and local sportswriters in Chattanooga didn't want to let him go as they were willing to go so far as to request Joe Engel to let Scrappy play center field and manage the team. 
 
One fan wrote in the Chattanooga Daily Times:
 
"He is a great asset to Chattanooga. What a set-up for publicity: Scrappy Moore, local boy, who made good as a football player, football coach, baseball player and now manager [of] local baseball team. Surely good sport copy for the columns of all the papers in America. We want Scrappy."
 
Another fan wrote:
 
"[…] It might also prove to be a good break for the university if Scrappy becomes the Lookout manager. His ability is being recognized in other places and if he can manage the Lookouts as well as coach the Moccasins the university may be able to hold him for years. 
 
Scrappy has had just the needed experience to reach his best in both managing and coaching. Regardless of the ability, this experience is a great asset. In my opinion the Lookouts will overlook a mighty good opportunity if Scrappy is not grabbed up before some other team gets wise. 
 
In my opinion no other coach could have made a better showing than Scrappy has since he has been coach at Chattanooga. He has brought out just about everything possible in the material he had. With the same energy and study of baseball I believe he will prove to be one of the best managers in the game."
 
For reasons unknown, Engel decided not to sign Scrappy as manager or even back on the team as their center fielder for the 1934 season. The then 31-year-old Scrappy went on to play for the Nashville Vols following his lone season with the Lookouts and finished up his career in Birmingham with the Barons later that season. Scrappy would, however, eventually end up becoming the manager of the Lookouts — only it would be a decade later.
 
Just after the Pearl Harbor attacks in 1942, the United States was in the midst of World War II and the sport of baseball was in disarray at the time, hoping not to be considered a "non-essential activity" like it was previously in World War I by the United States government. However, in what is known as the "Green Light Letter," President Roosevelt in 1942 said, "I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going." The only problem was that most men's sports across the country had been docked of star talent, leaving teams, in this case, playing bad baseball and therefore having poor attendance as a result. Teams were left to fill their rosters with players who were either too old to join the armed forces, or, as a lot did during that time, sign players from Cuba on work visas. 
 
The Chattanooga Lookouts certainly weren't immune to the lack of talent during 1944 thanks to the war, and with Joe Engel looking for answers, he went to the most beloved man in town, Scrappy Moore, to fill his manager position. After all, Scrappy had just been put on a leave of absence from the university due to the suspension of football activities with the ongoing war. 
 
Engel had perhaps learned from 1933 that the people of Chattanooga would be behind about anything Scrappy was a part of and he could get a boost in attendance just from Scrappy's presence. "I think Joe Engel came up short needing a manager," Byrum said. "He was always, of course, an infinite promoter, and knew the way this community thought about Scrappy. And probably more than anything, I think he knew that Scrappy was going to play a really, really aggressive form of baseball that would be enjoyable to watch."
 
It wasn't quite the season everyone had hoped for, though. The Lookouts ended up dead last in the Southern Association standings with a 57-83 record. Much like his playing career with the Lookouts that only lasted but a season, his managerial services were the same, and in 1945, as the war was coming to an end, Scrappy would return to his rightful place, back on the Chattanooga campus, coaching his boys and leaving baseball behind him.