1970 Shelbyville High School graduate Terry Moore, whose varied careers led him into the realms of broadcasting, sports statistics and real estate, passed away on May 31 at his Greenwood home at the age of 71.
Moore was an employee at WSVL Radio during the 1970s through most of the 1980s, primarily covering sports. He served as the play-by-play announcer for the inaugural Babe Ruth Bambino World Series which was held in Shelbyville in 1984.
“Terry called the action and I provided color commentary,” said former WSVL news director Jack Boyce. “He had an in-depth knowledge of baseball and described the action very well.”
Moore also provided radio coverage of Shelbyville High School girls basketball games during his time at the station.
“High school girls basketball was in its early years in Indiana and Terry did a good job of highlighting our local teams,” said Boyce.
“I worked some county and Hauser basketball games with Terry over the course of my time at WSVL,” said former station employee Mark Risley. “He was very professional and a pleasure to work with. I had occasion to see him at a meeting of former WSVL co-workers a couple of years ago. He was just a wonderful person.”
Moore (photo) was born in Richmond, Indiana, but lived his formative years in Shelbyville. He loved sports and coached Boys Club T-ball at the old Miller Street field for several summers during his junior high school and high school years.
His good-natured, self-deprecating comments about his diminutive physical stature, notwithstanding, Terry was an excellent athlete. He was a letter recipient on the 1969 and 1970 Golden Bear basketball teams that captured two sectional championships and compiled a cumulative record of 34-16.
However, baseball was his passion. He was a four-year starter for Shelbyville baseball teams from 1967 through 1970.
“Terry was a great player but an even greater teammate,” stated fellow 1970 SHS graduate Bill Horner. “He played every game in centerfield for Shelbyville for four years. He batted first and I hit second. He played center and I played left field.”
Moore and Horner were sophomores on a 1968 SHS team that won the South Central Conference championship and featured standouts Mike Ross, Mike Wagner, Kim Ash and Bruce Campbell. The Golden Bears defeated Connersville, Jeffersonville and Franklin to earn a berth in the final game of that SCC tournament. Wagner pitched a 1-0 shutout against Seymour to secure the title for Shelbyville.
“Terry was selected to the all-conference team our senior year in 1970,” continued Horner. “He was always so welcoming when we would see him keeping statistics for ESPN at IU games. He loved seeing old friends. He treasured his heritage. That is just who he was.”
The SHS alumni teamed up again after graduation to comprise a formidable outfield duo for the First Christian Church men’s softball team. Moore and Horner’s tremendous speed was a distinct advantage given the shorter 60-foot softball bases.
“(SHS Baseball) Coach Hughes would regularly have Terry and me race from home to first base during practice,” said Horner. “It was always pretty close.”
Moore seemed to be ever-present at the Kennedy Park softball field in the late sixties and early seventies. He was in great demand on both the fast-pitch and slow-pitch circuits, sometimes with his father, Cledis, as a teammate.
Blessed with a resonant broadcasting voice, Moore worked as a staff announcer for television station WTTV-4 from 1982 through 1988. He also worked in the channel 4 promotions department. His extensive knowledge and understanding of sports led him to a position as a statistician for WTTV and an opportunity to contract with ESPN.
Moore enjoyed success as a real estate agent for Century 21 during the day and worked stats in the evening until 1994. He worked about 40 dates a year including numerous IU games.
“I am away from my family a lot from November to April,” said Moore in 1993, “but they’re very supportive.”
Moore supplied statistical information to ESPN announcers Dick Vitale, Clark Kellogg and long-time Channel 4 broadcaster Chuck Marlowe during games. Moore talked very favorably about the iconic Vitale.
“A lot of Dick Vitale’s loudness is kind of a show to give him an identity,” Moore said during a newspaper interview in 1993. “Off camera, he is really one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. He talks to kids and takes time to sign autographs — not at all obnoxious.”
Terry spent much of his time over the years coaching his children and grandchildren’s sports teams. He consistently shared his love and knowledge of sports throughout his life.
Terry is survived by his wife, Jeanne; brother, Jim; and sister, Jill Reynolds; as well as four children and four grandchildren.
Though he lived away from his hometown for the last four decades of his life, I will always think of Terry as a Shelbyville guy. He was seven years my senior and served as my first baseball coach at the Boys Club in 1966. My mind’s eye will forever see him playing basketball on the old outdoor asphalt Boys Club basketball courts or darting around the bases and chasing down flyballs in the outfields at Kennedy Park or the old Meridian Street athletic field that for so many years served as the home site for Golden Bears baseball.
Most significantly, Terry will be primarily remembered as a congenial man who loved his family above all else. He genuinely appreciated the opportunities and blessings his life provided and consistently reflected that sentiment. He was first and foremost a kind person who held the people in his life in high esteem.
I had occasion to run into him more than twenty years ago while he was in town for a family get-together. We had a brief chat and it struck me how much he truly valued where he was from, the people he had known and how eager he always was to routinely communicate that. Terry Moore will always be a Shelbyville guy. Those who knew him are considerably richer for it.
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