Andrew Cecil Moore’s nickname, “Scrappy,” was hard-earned and well-deserved throughout thirty-six years as head coach at the University of Chattanooga. Consistently, Moore and his teams did what coaches and players are urged not to do – pick fights with the big boys. Probably no small college in the history of American football has consistently loaded its schedule with bigger schools as has the University of Chattanooga. Throughout Moore’s years at the helm, his schedule would include such teams as Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and Vanderbilt. Those years of gridiron battles demanded extraordinary resolve, determination, and of course, a scrappy attitude. Not all of those games turned out to be defeats for Chattanooga, either. Moore’s teams did, on occasion, triumph against the southern powerhouses. His underdog Moccasins defeated both Vanderbilt and Mississippi in 1946. But Moore’s most memorable victory took place in the Fall of 1958 when he and his Mocs returned to Chattanooga having defeated the mighty University of Tennessee Volunteers. His record from 1931 to 1967 stands at 153 victories, 140 losses and 13 ties. Not only a success at coaching others, “Scrappy” was an outstanding all-round athlete in his own right. An All-Conference quarterback in football at the University of Georgia, “Scrappy” then went on to become an outstanding center fielder for the Birmingham Barons in the old Southern League.
