It has taken me 22 years to finally get a nominee elected to a Blair County sports Hall of Fame. This weekend, Penn State Altoona will induct Frank “Junie” Moore on the basis of his extraordinary accomplishments on the basketball courts at Ivyside and in Rec Hall at Penn State.

Actually, Moore was my second nominee for a Hall of Fame sainthood. In 2003, I unsuccessfully put Martinsburg native Jone Bush’s name forward to the Blair County Hall for her unique athletic achievements.

Moore’s athletic prowess at Altoona High School, Class of 1944, and Penn State, Class of 1951, made him a local celebrity on the sport pages of the Mirror and the Altoona Tribune. He was hired at Morrison Cove High with high expectations. They were soon fulfilled. He turned average programs into consistent winners. And he did it with impeccable character, a fine-tuned sense of humor and contagious optimism.

I played on Moore’s teams during his first year of coaching (1951-52) at MCHS.

At a basketball practice before our team was to play Claysburg-Kimmel, he assigned the role of CKHS sharpshooter Mel Nycum to Bernie Hinish. He then named me as the defender to closely guard Hinish, so that I could later limit Nycum’s scoring.

Hinish was usually a superior player, but during this practice he was off his game and I began laughing at his futility. Coach Moore blew his whistle, inserted himself into the practice and began scoring baskets from all points on the court. I was chasing after him, working up a heavy sweat, and completely dominated. But I learned a lesson in humility.

My other memory of Junie occurred when he took the basketball team to Athens, Pennsylvania, for a game that required an overnight stay. It was an unexpected detour on the auto trip home that had a meaningful impact on me.

Moore steered the convoy into State College and parked in front of Rec Hall.

He escorted our team into what appeared to my eyes as an athletic cathedral on par with Madison Square Garden.

I was taken aback with the splendor of the structure and decided that this was the college I wanted to attend. He encouraged me to follow through.

My last memory is one of the high points in my life. In 1979, I was a senior Navy officer, a captain (equivalent to full colonel). Moore was then a guidance counselor at Central High and recommended to the Spring Cove School Board that I be invited to deliver the graduation address that year, which they did and I accepted.

Being a high school graduation speaker may not be thought of as special by a lot of people, but it has always been a great point of pride to me. As I looked into the standing-room audience and saw familiar faces from my school days, former teachers and classmates, all of whom awaited my words of supposed inspiration, I thought, “Wentz, this will be a very special lifetime memory.” All credit to Junie Moore.

Moore died in 2015, age 89.

Cove historian Jim Wentz writes a monthly column for the Mirror.