Steve Moore, one of the most successful college basketball coaches, was voted into Wittenberg University’s Athletics Hall of Honor, as announced by the coaching legend’s alma mater. Moore is this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.
Moore, who retired at the end of the 2019-20 academic year, took over as Wooster’s head coach in 1987 and led the Fighting Scots to a 780-188 record over 33 seasons. Coupled with his 87-65 ledger over six years as Muhlenberg College’s head coach, Moore amassed a career record of 867-253, ranking him 12th all-time in NCAA men’s basketball victories and second within NCAA Div. III.
Moore-coached Wooster teams made 28 appearances in the Div. III Championships, highlighted by runs to the national championship game (2011) and national semifinals (2003, 2007). Additionally, Wooster made the field for the Div. III Championships in each of his last 18 seasons, with that streak ranking as the longest in Div. III history and tied for the seventh-longest consecutive tournament streak in NCAA men’s basketball history (all divisions).
At the national level, Moore’s Scots earned 21 All-America certificates, five National Association of Basketball Coaches District Player of the Year honors, and alumnus Bryan Nelson was chosen as the NABC Div. III Player of the Year in 2003. In fact, Wooster’s had five different (Nelson – 2002-03, Tom Port – 2006-07, Ian Franks – 2009-10, Doug Thorpe – 2013-14, Danyon Hempy – 2019-20) first-team NABC All-Americans in the 2000s, and the Scots are the lone Div. III program with that many different honorees. Of note, the program’s won at least 20 games in each of the last 24 seasons, and the University of Kansas is the only NCAA men’s program with a longer active streak.
Within the NCAC, Wooster won a league-leading 18 conference titles under Moore and captured the NCAC Tournament crown 17 times. Ten Scots were chosen as the NCAC Player of the Year, five earned the league’s newcomer of the year prize, and 111 all-conference certificates were earned by Wooster players.
The nine-time NCAC Coach of the Year and five-time NABC Great Lakes District Coach of the Year was chosen for the NABC’s prestigious “Guardians of the Game” award for education in 2008, an honor also once bestowed to the legendary John Wooden.
In addition to all his success on the court, Moore served a four-year term on the prestigious NCAA rules committee, was a member of the NABC Congress, served on the NABC ethics committee, and the Wooster basketball program holds several service initiatives each year. Included among those are basketball skills’ clinics for local youth, fundraisers for Coaches vs. Cancer, a food and clothing drive for discounted admission at the program’s two annual regular-season tournaments, and participation in the NABC Dream to Read program with local elementary schools.
Prior to taking the reins of Muhlenberg’s program, Moore served as an assistant coach at Wittenberg from 1976-81. During that five-year period, he helped lead the Tigers to four regular season Ohio Athletic Conference championships, two OAC Tournament titles, and a national championship in 1977.
As a player, the guard was a three-year letterwinner and was part of three-straight OAC championship teams, including when he was a team captain and the starting point guard in 1974.