The term "Texas high school football coaching legend" gets thrown around a lot. Texas high school football is a proud, storied institution, stretching back more than 140 years. The state also awards more than 15 state championships per year between its 12 public-school classifications and the various private-school organizations. Time and opportunity have created lots of legends over the years.
And all of those legends are looking up at GA Moore.
Moore left the game, and remains today, the winningest head coach in the history of Texas high school football, amassing a 429-97-9 (.810) and eight state championships across a nearly 50-year career. Moore, 86, died Friday surrounded by his loved ones, according to Dave Campbell's Texas Football.
An all-state football and basketball player at Pilot Point High School, roughly 50 miles north of Dallas, Moore played football at North Texas and then entered coaching. Moore's coaching talent was evident as a fresh-out-of-college rookie head coach in 1962, where he inherited a Bryson High School team on a 21-game losing streak and went 5-5.
Moore spent the bulk of his career bouncing between his alma mater Pilot Point and nearby Celina -- which is a bit like Bear Bryant going back and forth from Alabama to Auburn. Rivals in those days, Moore won his first state championship at Celina in 1974, claimed back-to-back Class 2A state championships at Pilot Point in 1980-81, then won five state championships (including four consecutive, with a state-record 68-game winning streak) at Celina from 1988-2001. Moore returned to Pilot Point in 2002 and retired in 2004. He returned to coaching at nearby Aubrey in 2009 and immediately posted an 11-2 season, then retired for good in 2011.
Moore's record of 429 wins has since been surpassed by Phil Danaher's 490 wins at Dilley, Hamshire-Fannett, and Corpus Christi Calallen, but Moore's .810 winning percentage surpasses Danaher's .804 percentage.
These days, Moore's adopted home of Celina's program is in much better shape than his ancestral home of Pilot Point. That's partly because Celina is located in Collin County, whose high school football programs have benefitted from an exponential economic boom over the past 30 years, while Pilot Point sits across county lines, in Denton County. Celina competes in Class 4A Division I, while Pilot Point is in Class 3A Division I. Celina is the reigning champion of 4A D-I, while Pilot Point is looking for its first winning season since 2021. And that's largely because Celina is coached by Moore's protege, Bill Elliott.
"Coach Moore has impacted thousands of people," Elliott told DCTF. "His Christian example as a husband, father and coach has forever impacted so many, including me, my friends, and the kids he coached."
A 2001 Texas Monthly profile of Moore opened like this:
G. A. Moore, Jr., the head football coach at Celina High School, exudes all the flash and sparkle of a dirt farmer. On Wednesday mornings he attends a five-thirty prayer meeting at a local youth center. On Thursday mornings he meets with the booster club for a five-thirty breakfast in the high school cafeteria, where he gives credit to everyone but himself. He regrets that during the season he sees little of Lois Ann, his wife of forty years, though it helps that she sometimes scouts games with him.
There have been dozens of legendary Texas high school football coaches, and more are produced every year. Carthage's Scott Surratt, a perfect 10-0 in state championship games, has surpassed Moore in rings and winning percentage (.883). But none of them are, were, or will be as picture-perfect "legendary Texas high school football coach" as GA Moore.