Word about Moser from Sydney

Well, now they know about Chuck Moser in Sydney, Australia.

A couple of months ago, an order for “Warbirds” came in from Stephen Dunne, who identified himself as a football (American football, not soccer) coach in Sydney.

In case you don’t know, I published “Warbirds” two years ago as an historical documentary of the 1954-57 Abilene High School Eagles football team, which at the end of the century was named “Team of the Century” in Texas high school football. The Eagles, under Coach Chuck Moser, won 49 straight games and three straight state championships from 1954-57.

I conceived the book simply as a reconstruction of the details of the streak, most of which were long since forgotten. But I wasn’t very far into the work when I saw that the details may have been about the streak, but the heart of the book was how the Eagles played the game. The book was more about the coach than it was the team.

The book was shipped to Stephen Dunne, and last week I heard from him again.

“Coach Moser is shown in such a wonderful light,” he said. “His attitude and strength comes through in the book. I'm head coach of Sydney University Lions down here in Sydney, Australia. We've made six straight State Championship games, winning the last three. The last two seasons have been undefeated and we are on a 31 game winning streak. When reading I looked for some keys to Coach Moser's success as well as what motivates the players to succeed.”

Sports in Australia are organized not so much along high school or university lines as along “club” lines. I’m not sure what that means. I visited the Sydney University Website and had a hard time figuring out who might be eligible to play for Coach Dunne’s team. Their season is also reversed from ours. In March, it’s fall in Australia, and teams this weekend are playing their fourth games of the season. The Sydney University Cubs (colors: maroon and gold) are playing the Northwestern Pumas at 7 tonight (Sydney time) at the UNSW Hockey Complex in Little Bay. Last week, the Cubs beat the UTS Gridiron Gators, 30-14.

“I had read another book about Coach Moser (before I found out about yours) and it was very disappointing,” Coach Dunne said. “No details on the football, not even what offense they ran (I'm also a collector and student of 50s football, Spilt T offenses and such.) The other book also gave no clear picture of what Coach was like. I was so glad to read a version that did justice to the subject. My congratulations.”

Well, shucks. Music to my ears.

“It's a book I will be returning to,” he said, “and - I hope you'll be happy to know - I will slip in some references to Coach Moser when talking to the team.”

The team could do worse. Chuck Moser didn’t start with X’s and O’s, but with values and principles. There were rules of football, and also of living. From these he developed a program that was designed simply to give his team its best chance to win. Now that word is reaching a football team in Sydney, Australia. Am I happy to know? Yes, I think so. I press the book to my chest and thank God I had something to do with making that happen.