The Faith-Filled Legacy of Coach G.A. Moore

Proverbs 3:5 lived out

Faith wasn’t something Coach G.A. Moore practiced on Sundays, it was the rhythm of his life. To the world, he was the winningest coach in Texas high-school football history. To those who truly knew him, he was a shepherd with a whistle, a man whose pulpit was sometimes the locker room and sometimes a barn under the North Texas sky.

“He wasn’t a coach who happened to be a Christian,” his daughter Pam said softly. “He was a Christian who happened to coach. His faith was who he was at his core.”

At home, that faith was lived out in steady, simple ways. “Every night we knelt around Mom and Dad’s bed,” Pam recalled. “The youngest prayed first, then up the line until it was Mom and Dad. They taught us to pray about everything, even our enemies.” Mornings began with Scripture and sweat. “He always said, ‘If you’re going to coach, you can’t be out of shape.’ Body and spirit both had to be strong.”

When the state tried to ban public prayer at football games, Coach Moore didn’t flinch. He jogged to midfield, grabbed the microphone, and prayed for all to hear. “He said the right thing will always be the right thing, even when it’s hard,” the family remembered. “Right is right; wrong is wrong.” It became their creed, words that still echo through generations.

Ten years ago, the coach who’d led countless teams to victory stepped into a new role as pastor of Mustang Baptist Church, the same church his parents once attended. “He saw that churches needed to be helping and loving each other,” his daughter said. “That was his heart.” When illness later slowed him, his son-in-law Brian continued the ministry. “I don’t want a title,” Brian said. “I’d rather be a shepherd headed in the right direction. This is an eternal message.”

A Son Deeply Loved and a Legacy Carried Forward

Among all the young men Coach Moore poured his life into, none shaped him more deeply than his son, Gary Don. He was well-loved, prayed for, and wanted long before he ever put on pads. His sisters still laugh remembering how the whole family mothered him. “He had five moms,” one said. “We all protected him. But we also told him, ‘Don’t embarrass Dad!’”

Gary Don grew up under high expectations, but also under the unwavering love of a father who believed in him fiercely. “He always told Gary Don, ‘Do your best because I know you can,’” Lois Ann shared. And the boy did.

In 1995, father and son achieved something few families ever experience: they won a State Championship together in Celina. Gary Don as quarterback, his dad as head coach. After the final whistle sounded, Gary Don dropped to the field and wept. “He laid on that turf and cried because he had done it,” Lois Ann said. “He had lived up to everything he hoped his dad could see in him.” The embrace they shared that night became one of the Moore family’s most cherished memories.

Gary Don grew into a husband and father whose own children adored their Big Dad. Lois Ann said, “Our kids were always close, but Gary Don brought out the tenderness in all of them.”  He carried his father’s love for family, faith, and football with pride, a living reminder that legacy isn’t taught; it’s absorbed. 

Gary Don passed away December 2020 leaving an incredible wake of impact for the kingdom, just as his Dad has.

Faith in Action

Tom Swartz, now North Texas West Metro Director for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, says G.A. Moore changed his life. “When G.A. called me one Sunday night,” Tom remembered. “I told my wife I might need to go back to teaching. That night, GA called me and said, ‘Come see me.’ He’d sold some land and blessed me to put me into full-time ministry. He said, ‘God told me to do this.’ That gift changed the trajectory of the ministry I have been called to.”

For Tom, that moment captured who Coach Moore really was. “He used coaching as the hands and feet of Jesus,” he said. “He broke bread with people, fed kids before school, and filled their buckets with breakfast, encouragement, or prayer. He believed that was Holy work.”

Through that leadership, Moore discipled countless young men.  “He taught us will, not skill, makes you better,” one former player said.  “He believed God could use ordinary kids to do extraordinary things.”  His practices built both muscle and morals.  

That conviction carried into home life.  His kids learned early that promises mattered.  One daughter laughed through tears remembering how, after her Dad told her, “if you don’t pull that loose tooth by tonight, I am going to get the pliers and pull it myself.” After refusing to pull it, her father  laid her on the kitchen table that night and used the pliers.  “He had to keep his word,” she said. “He told me later it was the hardest thing he ever did.”

Today, Tom, along with other FCA staff, hosts the annual Fields of Faith event on G.A. Moore Jr. Field at Massey Stadium in Pilot Point, TX where hundreds of students gather each year to worship and share testimonies. “When I see 700 kids standing on that field hearing the gospel, I know he’s smiling,” Tom said. “That’s what he was all about.”

He’s also helping establish the Coach G.A. and Lois Ann Moore Endowment, tied to North Texas FCA, to ensure the couple’s impact continues. “There’s not a better ministry for coaches and athletes,” Tom said. “And G.A. was one of its biggest believers. His fingerprints are still all over this community, an eternity fingerprint.”

A Rancher’s Heart

At home, G.A.’s faith looked like hard work and gratitude. “Every day we did ranch work except on Sunday,” Lois Ann said. “He rode a horse daily to check on cows and for pleasure. He loved sitting at the barn watching the horses graze. Ranching was fun for him.”

He also loved performing wedding ceremonies. “He told every couple, ‘If I marry you, you have to stay together forever,’” Lois Ann laughed. When their third daughter asked him to officiate her wedding, he made her make that promise. She promised to keep it, and she has.

An Eternal Perspective

In Pilot Point, where faith and football share the same heartbeat, G.A. Moore’s legacy lives onin locker rooms, churches, ranches, and kitchen tables. His children remain close, holding tight to one another as their mother always prayed they would.

The lessons he left behind remain sacred: The right thing will always be the right thing. You can’t reach a kid until he knows you love him. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

“G.A. didn’t just quote Scripture,” Tom Swartz said. “He embodied it.”

For a man who measured life in quarters and seasons, eternity was always the goal. “It wasn’t about my ability,” he once said. “It was about God’s.”

And in that truth, Coach Moore ran his final race wide open—faithful to the finish, a life well lived and lived for Christ.

Photo Credit: Timeless Images