Wayne Moses, Former UW Cornerback and RB Coach, Dies at 69
Wayne Moses, a former University of Washington starting cornerback, member of the Huskies' 1978 Rose Bowl team and later a UW running-backs coach, died on Thursday in California. He was 69.
Best known as a college and NFL assistant coach for 44 years, everyone up and down the West Coast knew Moses, who was considered a gentle soul. Everyone hired him.
At one point, Moses worked for five of the then-Pac-10 schools, including for both Jim Lambright and Rick Neuheisel with the Huskies in 1997-2000.
Pete Carroll made him one of his first hires in 2001 when he came to USC.
Moses ended up working two different stints for UCLA and Stanford, plus a season for California.
Neuheisel kept Moses and defensive-line coach Randy Hart as carryover coaches from Lambright's 1998 staff.
Lambright coached him and then coached with him.
Moses also had stops at Cal State Fullerton, North Carolina State, Bowling Green, Rutgers, San Diego State, New Mexico, Pittsburgh, Idaho, Army and Hawaii, plus two years in the NFL with the then St. Louis Rams.
He was working to the end, spending the past seven seasons Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, a Division III program located 30 miles east of Los Angeles, not far from where he grew up. No cause of death was given.
Husky coach Jim Owens recruited Moses as a running back out of San Dimas, California, in 1973. Don James, Owens' replacement, made him a cornerback.
Moses started both the 1976 and 1977 seasons in the UW secondary, intercepting a pair of passes each year. Unfortunately, he did not get to play as a senior against Michigan in the Rose Bowl, which was played 10 miles from his home.
A 5-foot-9, 175-pound defensive back, Moses broke his ankle in the ninth game of the 1977 season in a 50-31 victory over California in Berkeley. He went to Pasadena on crutches.
"I did everything I could to get to that bowl and now I can't go," he told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "It's the most disappointing thing that could have happened. It's even worse than getting beat for a touchdown, which is pretty bad.."
However, Moses made sure he wasn't shorted of anything as a football coach, spending those four and a half decades in the profession. He even made it back to the Rose Bowl in 2001 as part of Neuheisel's staff.
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