Donnie Von Moore was one of my true KU basketball heroes growing up in Lawrence. I loved his name, I loved his game, and I loved his personality. Above all, I so admired how he persevered over great adversity after almost dying of pneumonia in 1975. He lay in a hospital bed for eight weeks fighting for his life.
Within two weeks of leaving the hospital and despite losing 45 pounds on his already slender frame, Donnie was back on the court practicing with his teammates.
“Just because you love the game so much, you got to get back into it,” Von Moore told me in 2000.
He redshirted the 1975-76 season due to his illness, but came back his final two seasons and played productively as a key reserve big man off the bench.
I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Donnie Von Moore. I named my intramural softball team the “Donnie Von Moore’s.” We may not have been that great, but we played with the great heart and courage of Von Moore.
I also have a connection with Donnie through my older brother Michael. My brother attended the University of Chicago in the late 1970s and lived near Wrigley Field. He would hang out with Donnie playing pool and watching him play hoops on the playground. My brother sent me this prized pic of Donnie skying high for a dunk, a picture I deeply cherished of my childhood hero.
I spent about 45 minutes talking to Donnie in 2000, just before he was set to work his graveyard shift at UPS. After years of trying to find himself after KU in his native Chicago, Donnie finally got hoops out of his system at age 35 and that basketball was now “dead.” At the time of this great interview, Donnie was also working as a substitute elementary teacher in Chicago, rekindling his love for teaching that he dreamed about as age 5 and teaching life lessons to the next generation of heroes.
I’m very proud of how Donnie’s life has turned out after graduating from KU in 1980 with a degree in health education.
After averaging just 2.0 points in 13 games during the 1973-74 Final Four season, Donnie greatly improved as a sophomore and averaged 7.1 points in 20.6 minutes per game, while collecting 5.7 rebounds and blocking 37 shots. After redshirting, he came back his junior year in 1976-77 and again averaged 7.1 points in 22.7 minutes per game, while shooting 49.4 percent from the field and pulled down 5.5 rebounds and led the team with 51 blocks.
Von Moore also led the ‘Hawks in rebounds 13 times as a sophomore and junior.
The 6-9, 205-pound forward saved his best season for last as a senior on the 1977-78 team, one of the most underrated squads in KU history, which went 24-5 and was ranked as high as No. 5 in the land. I got chills going to games that season with my dad and seeing the No. 5 ranked team in action and watching heroes like Von Moore, John Douglas and Darnell Valentine living out my childhood hoop dreams.
Von Moore averaged a career-high 10.7 points per game while blocking a career-high 53 points and averaging a career-best 6.5 boards per game while recording a career-high 22 steals.
For his career, Von Moore scored 730 points (7.5 ppg) and totaled 518 rebounds (5.3 rpg), while posting 147 blocks, No. 6 all time after leaving KU.
Von Moore came to KU after a highly decorated career at Kenwood High School in Chicago, where he was a prep All-American and recruited by KU assistant Sam Miranda. Donnie was also all-state and all-city. He led Kenwood to a 21-5 record his senior year, averaging 24 points and 12 rebounds per game.
Donnie, thanks for the memories. Your great heart, spirit, soul, determination and perseverance will live with me forever!
Here is the Where Are They Now? profile I wrote on him for Jayhawk Insider in 2000.
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By David Garfield
Donnie Von Moore lay in in a hospital bed for eight weeks in November and December of 1975 fighting for his life. Von Moore, who underwent major surgery to remove infections in his chest cavity (caused by pneumonia), was comforted and overwhelmed throughout his illness by the tremendous outpour of support from the Jayhawk community.
“In a way, it was probably one of the things that happened that was negative as far as my career was concerned,” the former Kansas basketball standouts said this recent evening from his home in Chicago, Ill. “But it was positive, because it really showed you how much people cared about you. I received thousands of cards and letters. People I never knew came to visit me.”
His family and friends, as well as his positive attitude, helped in Von Moore’s recovery process. In fact, Doug Murray (son of Nancy and Jim, a longtime KU women’s basketball statistician), who was just 12 at the time, “almost went into the surgery with me, and then when I came out, it was his voice that woke me up.”
Despite losing 45 pounds, Von Moore left the hospital and was back on the court practicing with his teammates in two weeks.
“Just because you love the game so much, you got to get back into it.”
A survivor, Von Moore has always been passionate about basketball and people. It was inspirational people like the Murrays and Sinclairs (Paul and his wife were cooks at the training table) which Von Moore remembers most today.
Ironically, two of his most vivid game memories are ones he wish never happened. Von Moore, a 6-9 forward-center, now recalls the time he got into a “prize fight” with Missouri forward Jim Kennedy.
“The ref walked up to Ted (coach Owens) and said number 22 is out of the game,” Von Moore said. "Ted asked me, ‘What did I do?’ I said, ‘Nothing.’ When I saw the film, I was like, ‘Man, you can actually see what you did.’ I hit that guy about four or five times. It didn’t seem like I had done any of it. It was just a reaction.”
And then there was the infamous nationally televised game against K-State in Manhattan on Feb. 11, 1978. The Wildcat fans threw bananas on the floor in response to the KU faithful tossing hot dogs at showboat Curtis Redding when the two teams played in Lawrence earlier that season. K-State students even called Von Moore “ape man.”
“It was like total shock,” Von Moore said. “To me, it was racist. It was cruel and mean spirited. You wouldn’t think educated, college people would stoop to a level like that in response to people throwing a couple of hot dogs, saying a player is a hot dog, then turning it around and saying you got a gorilla or ape playing on your team and throwing bananas.”
KU ended up that season losing to UCLA in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Von Moore, who lost to UCLA in the Final Four consolation game as a freshman in 1974, was so upset that he didn’t immediately return with the team to Lawrence. Instead, he went with teammate Clint Johnson to California to stay with Johnson’s brother for two weeks.
“As a freshman, you think you’ll be back (in the Final Four),” Von Moore said. “You don’t cherish the moment as much as you should.”
Now, 22 years later, Von Moore has learned to cherish the day-to-day moments which capture his imagination. He lives back in Chicago with his wife and daughter, just around the corner from where he grew up. Von Moore is beginning life over again at 45 after spending the previous 11 years representing the union members of Speigels. He was secretary treasurer when he ran for president of the union in 1998.
“I lost the election,” Von Moore said. “Naturally, I got fired. I ran against the establishment.”
Blackballed from the union, Von Moore has finally returned to his first love — teaching. He currently works as a substitute teacher at an elementary school, as well as working the graveyard shift at UPS.
“I’ve wanted to do that (teaching) ever since I was 5,” Von Moore said. “Everything else was just like sidetracked. I think it’s what I was meant to do. It’s something I know I’m good at it. I didn’t want to do it earlier, because I didn’t think I was ready and had enough experiences in life. Now, it’s about passing what you know on to someone else.”
Von Moore, who is hoping to get his Illinois teaching certificate, admits he “kicked around for a long time trying to get basketball out of my system.” At 35, he “gave up and said, ‘You got to get it out of your mind that basketball is dead.’ I then started trying to get my life together.”
Soon, Von Moore says he has to go leave the house and work the graveyard shift at UPS. He is upbeat and persevering, just as did on and off the court at Kansas.
“All of the illness and coming back from that and all the other adversities in life, and just sports in general, prepares you to be strong at this period of time,” Von Moore said "The job I had before as a union rep, I was making six figures. Now, it’s like you're starting over at UPS making 10 dollars an hour. But you got to do it, because if you don’t do anything, you’ll just lay down and die.”
A Closer Look at Donnie Von Moore:
Years at KU: 1973-78 (Redshirted 1975-76 season due to illness)
Career Notables: Von Moore ranks No. 6 all-time at KU in blocked shots (147)...Scored 25 points against Missouri his senior year...Member of 1974 Final Four team.
Education: B.S. Health Education, 1980.
Family: Von Moore and his wife, Denise, have a daughter, Donese, 4. Donnie also has a son, Mathew, 13.
Since Leaving KU: Von Moore received his education degree in 1980, “bummed around” Chicago, and then worked in the warehouse for Speigels catalog company (1983-1988). He quit his position and went to work as a union representative for Speigels employees for 11 years.
Currently: Von Moore is a substitute elementary school teacher in native Chicago, and also works at UPS.
Hobbies: Spending time with his family.
Favorite KU Memories: The lasting relationships built with people like teammate Reuben Shelton and members of the Lawrence community...The old Allen Fieldhouse floor. “It was bouncy so you could jump off it and do some crazy stuff.”
On the Jayhawks Today: “I always look in the box scores and see how they’re doing. I think Coach (Roy) Williams is probably one of the best things to happen to KU in a long time.”
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