G.A. Moore (’62, ’67 M.Ed.), 86, Pilot Point, a North Texas football player who went on to a legendary coaching career and retired in 2011 as the winningest coach in Texas high school football, died Sept. 5.

After 45 years of coaching in Texas high schools, with nearly 40 of those years at Pilot Point and Celina, he finished with a 429-97-9 record and eight state championships (the record he set for total wins stood until 2016). He was inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Hall of Honor in 1998, the UNT Athletics Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2011. He also received the President’s Citation from UNT in 2004.

G.A. was an all-state high school football and basketball player at Pilot Point before he came to North Texas on a football scholarship, playing with the Eagles from 1957 to 1960. After his year on the freshman team, he played halfback on the varsity team — sharing the field with his childhood friend, quarterback Vernon Cole, and legendary running back Abner Haynes — until he was sidelined by a broken wrist that eventually ended his playing career.

He graduated in 1962 and began his coaching career that year with one season at Bryson before moving on to his decades with Pilot Point (1963-1970, 1977-1985, 2002-2004) and Celina (1972-1976, 1988-2001). In between, he also coached at Sherman (1986-1987) and, after taking a break in 2004, he coached at Aubrey (2009-2011) before retiring for good.

“Coaching is the most terrible job in the world if you don’t enjoy it,” he told the North Texan in 2002. “I’ve been awfully blessed. I couldn’t have asked for a better plan for life.”