Inducted: 1985
MHSFCA President, 1991.
When Tom Moshimer visited spring football practices at the University of Alabama in the early 1970s, he was more than a casual observer in legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant’s coaches’ meetings. “There were times when one of Bear’s assistants would ask him a question about the wishbone offense, and Bear would say, ‘Ask Mo, he knows as much about it as I do,’” said Bob Cummings, a former player and longtime protege of Moshimer.
Moshimer’s first coaching stint came as a graduate assistant under Duffy Daugherty at Michigan State University, his alma mater. After one year at MSU, Daugherty helped Moshimer land the head coaching job at Dundee, where he coached for eight years before he accepted a similar position at the old Plymouth High School, which later became Salem.Throughout his 42-year high school coaching career, Moshimer compiled a 219-146-0 record, which puts him 24th on the all-time victories list.His most memorable season of many came in 1974 when the Rocks went 9-0 and were the “mythical” Class A state champions after compiling the highest playoffs point total (115.0) in a “test” year before a playoffs format was instituted in 1975.
Moshimer was inducted into the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Michigan High School Coaches Hall of Fame in 1994. In 1989, he received the “Jim Crowley Award,” which is the highest honor members of the Football Coaches Association present to a peer each year. He retired from coaching following the 2000 season and was replaced by Cummings.
Tom loved football and he loved coaching. “He was just a great leader who got the most out of everybody he coached. He was a former Marine and that’s the way he coached. When he yelled, you ran.” “Tom was a hard coach, but he was a fair coach,” remembered Jim Jarvey, who served as one of Moshimer’s assistants for 25 years before they both hung up their whistles in 2000. “He loved the game and he cared deeply about his players. He’d always give them a second chance, both on and off the field. “He knew the wishbone offense as well as anybody because he studied it like nobody else and attended clinics throughout the country.