TOUGH TO SAY GOODBYE

PITTSBURGH —  He sued his beloved Notre Dame and exposed the ugly underpinnings of big-time college sports that pompom-waving fans never see.

The lawsuit was more wearying than 40 consecutive football-filled autumns with hardly a day off, and drained him of the emotion that drives men who instill discipline and maturity in players who may want neither.

“I’m tired,” he said after it finally ended, and he had won.

But Joe Moore wasn’t ready to say farewell to football, even if football seemed determined to say farewell to him.

Just three months after winning an age-discrimination lawsuit that sullied Notre Dame’s rarely blemished image and his own distinguished reputation, Moore is coaching again at age 66.

Not in the NFL, where he sent more than a dozen of his offensive line proteges from Pitt and Notre Dame. Or college football, where many still consider him to be the finest line coach ever.

No, the man who only two years ago coached Notre Dame’s offensive linemen now runs the defense at Pennsylvania’s Erie Cathedral High School. He is doing exactly what he was doing 40 years ago--coaching high school ball.

He took the opposite path of former Fighting Irish coach Gerry Faust, who jumped directly from high school to Notre Dame. It does not seem to bother Moore that he is overly qualified for a job usually filled by men just beginning their careers, not ending them.

In a curious twist of fate, Moore coached Saturday against alma mater Schenley High at Pittsburgh’s South Stadium, where he ran for the very first touchdown scored there in a 1950 high school all-star game.

“It’s not all that different--it’s football, it’s teaching, it’s fundamentals and it’s basic things,” Moore said. “I’m teaching the same things I was trying to teach in high school football in 1975.”

The only difference is that Moore is accustomed to teaching some of the best linemen to play the game--Bill Fralic, Mark May, Jimbo Covert, Jim Sweeney, Russ Grimm--not youngsters with peach-fuzz cheeks who didn’t know in August how to properly form a huddle.

And his boss isn’t a big name like Johnny Majors or Jackie Sherrill or Lou Holtz, but 29-year-old Mike Mischler, who is in his first year as a high school coach.

“His grandson goes to our school, and I called to see if he had any interest,” Mischler said. “The odd thing is he’s always coached offense, but one of his former Notre Dame players, Rick Kaczenski, coaches the offensive line, so Joe coaches the defense.”

Mischler was aware of accusations that Moore verbally abused and head-slapped his players, and that he can be overly demanding of players with great ability, much less than those of modest skills.

“The kids have responded real well,” said Mischler, whose team has won five in a row since starting 2-4. “He’s got a certain style, and he can be difficult at times, but he’s always there for the kids and he relates to them well.”

With Moore around, Mischler finds himself skipping some of the coaching clinics he once attended.

“I compare it to getting a job at the Smithsonian--it’s like having a football resource library at your fingertips,” Mischler said. “If there’s any question you have about any facet of the game, he can answer it. He knows so much, he gets frustrated sometimes when we don’t see right away what he is talking about.”

Moore never considered leaving football, even after a jury decided that his December 1996 dismissal by Notre Dame coach Bob Davie was age-related. He won close to $86,000 from the school.

“I was going to do something in football this year and next year and the year after,” Moore said. “I just want to make sure I’m enjoying it.”

He did not enjoy the trial, which riveted the world of college football as it revealed secrets Notre Dame preferred to keep hidden: Davie questioning Holtz’s mental stability; claims that coaches struck players and fellow coaches; even gossipy tidbits such as players watching cheerleaders having sex on road trips.

“They used all the power they had to destroy me as a person,” Moore said. “I love Notre Dame, but they were very vicious. There are laws in this land and they broke the law.

“But I’ll never quit loving Notre Dame. I don’t know if anybody who ever coached there had as strong feelings as I did. They may have tied me, but they didn’t beat me.”

Sweeney, a Pittsburgh Steelers lineman coached by Moore at Pitt, doesn’t doubt his former mentor’s strong feelings. To Sweeney, it was exactly that loyalty and commitment that allowed Moore to send so many players to the NFL.

“There has to be a common denominator, and I’m sure if you go back and talk to all of the guys who’s played for coach Moore, a lot of them would credit their success to him,” Sweeney said. “I guarantee it.”

Moore, who also evaluates players for the Baltimore Ravens, says he’ll coach as long as he can. Mischler said, “He’ll coach until the day he dies.”

“I go to games, I evaluate college players, I evaluate free agents, I keep my feet moving,” Moore said. “I’m always going to do something in football.”