Dr. Warner 'Lanny' Moore Remembered by Moore Family
11/9/2006 12:00:00 AM | General
For the late Dr. Warner O. "Lanny" Moore Jr., it was an elevator ride he would never forget. In the mid-1980s, after a tutoring session for Alabama football players at Gorgas Library, Moore stepped onto the elevator with All-American linebacker Cornelius Bennett and a host of several other Tide players.
Obviously, this particular elevator had never been tested quite like that moment, grinding to an abrupt halt between floors. A few precious and tense moments later, the occupants landed on solid ground, safe and sound. "From that point on," said Moore's wife Kathy, "they learned to ride the elevator a few players at a time."
In dedication ceremonies last Friday morning in the Alabama football locker room in the Football Complex, Moore's son Warner Moore III fondly remembered his father Lanny with a $25,000 pledge to the Crimson Tide Foundation. For the commitment, a locker was named in Lanny Moore's memory.
Lanny Moore, whose July 1991 fatal heart attack at the age of 48 shocked the University of Alabama community, was a distinguished U.S. history professor and student affairs official at the Capstone. But perhaps his first love was as a tutor for many Alabama football players from the late 1960s until the late 1980s. "Over his many years of tutoring," Kathy remarked, "Lanny would often remark that he could have compiled the best football team ever with all the players he had taught and tutored."
"Naming a locker in my father's memory is the perfect way for us to remember my dad and his love of Alabama football," said Warner Moore III, a 1993 graduate of the University and currently a financial advisor in the Washington, D.C. area. "Alabama football was the one thing that my family did together. I remember going over to Bryant Hall when I was about 9 or 10 and seeing all the players. My dad was on the sidelines for many games, including Coach Bryant's '315' game in Birmingham. Our memories of him and Alabama football are priceless."
Two prominent areas on campus already honor Moore for his long-time service - a marker on the Quad near the Mound and the Moore Hall of Fame in the Ferguson Center, which recognizes student honorees from various honoraries and organizations.
A locker naming right is one of numerous naming opportunities available through gifts to the Crimson Tradition Fund, the Athletic Department's $120 million facilities improvement campaign that began in March 2002.
