Porter Moore, Jr.
Class of 2013
When Porter Moore transferred from all-Black Councill Training School to Huntsville’s Lee High in 1966, school integration was fragile and fraught. Moore met the moment with quiet courage and extraordinary play. Quick, agile, and rangy, he became a two-year starter in football, an All-City end, a track cornerstone, and a captain whose dignity steadied teammates. In 1968 he and Danny Petty led Lee to its first state basketball championship, sweeping Bradshaw, Tuscaloosa, and Gadsden at the 4A tournament.
Administrators and coaches still speak of him with reverence. “Porter did everything with dignity,” said football coach Keith Wilson. Principal Dr. Fulton Hamilton called him a great athlete and human being. Coach Jerry Dugan remembers his dominance during the ’68 run. Moore’s excellence wasn’t just in points or yards—it was in how he carried a community into a new era, modeling grace under the worst kind of scrutiny.
After graduation he served honorably in the U.S. Army (1968–72), then enrolled at Alabama A&M on a football scholarship. As an inside linebacker, he became a senior on Louis Crews’s final Bulldogs team in 1975. That season included a special family subplot: Porter faced brother Joe, a four-year starting guard at Tuskegee (and later a Tuskegee Hall of Famer). Tuskegee won 26–21; days later, Moore starred in A&M’s 31–12 win over Miles with a fumble recovery and an interception.
Tragically, not long after, Moore collapsed at home while preparing to attend an A&M basketball game and died of a heart attack at age 27. He left behind wife Barbara, son Bernard, mother Pearl, three brothers, and three sisters. His legacy—a pioneer’s courage, an athlete’s brilliance, a gentleman’s bearing—still echoes at Lee, A&M, and across Madison County fields and courts he helped unite.
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