Eddie Moss at Cape Civic Center

In the same edition that carried the feature story about Curtis Clymer and his riverboat models from last week's blog, a second article in the sports section caught my eye.

The same photographer — Rick Morein — took pictures for both articles, but the sport story was the work of one of my favorite Missourian writers, Sam Blackwell. The subject of the story: Eddie Moss and pain.

Moss, who started playing football on the gridiron in Poplar Bluff and went on to dazzle fans at Houck Stadium, was hired in January 1974 as the director of the Cape Girardeau Civic Center, after having been injured the previous fall while playing for the St. Louis (football) Cardinals. A story in June 1974 reflected on his sidelined professional career and his work with the less fortunate youths of Cape Girardeau.

Published Jan. 25, 1974, in the Southeast Missourian:

MOSS TO CAPE CIVIC CENTER

Eddie B. Moss, who was knocked out of the St. Louis football Cardinals lineup by an injury in the fourth game last fall, has been hired as director of the Cape Girardeau Civic Center, 201 N. Spanish St.

Mr. Moss, a native of Poplar Bluff and a 1972 graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, took over Thursday from Mrs. Elsie Gaden, who remains with the Civic Center as assistant director.

Programming

As directed by the board, Mr. Moss will be responsible for overall programming at the center, a biracial educational and recreational facility funded by United Way and other donations. He will plan and supervise activities for teenagers and young adults, and he and Mrs. Gaden will share responsibility for work with elementary school children.

Other responsibilities assigned to Mr. Moss include public relations, recruitment and supervision of volunteers, hiring and supervision of part-time employees, supervision of maintenance and improvement of the center’s physical plant, coordination of Boy Scout work, and home visitation.

Mrs. Gaden will also work with adult programming, coordinate Girl Scout activities, and make home visits as needed. Affiliated with the Civic Center since 1967 and its director since 1968, Mrs. Gaden is also employed by the East Missouri Community Action agency as a teacher of Head Start classes held in the center’s building. Her work as assistant director of the center will be on a part-time basis.

Resides here

Mr. Moss and wife and two children live at 1113 N. Middle St. He attended Centerville Junior College 1968-70, and Southeast Missouri State University 1970-72. He played fullback on the university’s football team, and in 1971 was a seventh-round draft choice for the Buffalo Bills. In 1971-1972 he was teacher aide and assistant coach at Poplar Bluff High School, and was signed by the Cardinals after attending a tryout session in the spring of 1973.

Published June 2, 1974, in the Southeast Missourian:

Eddie Moss, right, whose primary job this fall may be running interference for St. Louis football Cardinal running backs, is shown outside the Civic Center in Cape Girardeau, where he served as director during the off-season. (Rick Morein ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

MOSS KNOWS ABOUT ACHES AND TWINGES

By SAM BLACKWELL
Missourian Sports Writer

When anybody talks about what it takes to play professional football, the ability to endure pain is always mentioned and then forgotten, like some drudging, unreal task. It’s the stamp on the membership card, the great writer’s neurosis and the cigarette’s butt. It has to be.

Eddie Moss knows about football aches and twinges and about its wracking anguishes. He has played football for almost half his 25 years and has lost blood, confidence and even a brother on football fields from Poplar Bluff to Buffalo, New York. Yet the fact that he loves what he’s doing is as visible as the cracked front tooth in the bearded face.

Eddie Moss is the director of the Cape Girardeau Civic Center until he leaves that position this summer to join the St. Louis Cardinals’ training camp. It’s apparent that he takes great delight in this job too. They’re going to miss him when he’s gone.

Where he’s going is the campus of Illinois State University at Normal. He’ll try to win back the starting berth lost a year ago when he blocked a Philadelphia Eagle and a bicep muscle snapped like baling wire. The injury was unusual, and painful, but has healed completely. That leaves only the worry of wresting a position from backfield starters Terry Metcalf and Donny Anderson, along with an old newcomer named Ken Willard, acquired in a trade with the San Francisco ’49ers.

A lot of people from this area will be thinking “Come on, Eddie” when he gives it a try. He played high school football at Poplar Bluff under Jim Lohr, now head coach for Southeast Missouri State University. Brothers Leroy and Hosea were standouts there before moving on to play college football and Mike, who played tailback for the Mules last year, will be a junior.

Leroy was at times spectacular while at the University of Missouri and plans to play in the Canadian Football League this season.

Hosea, who was an all-state football and basketball player in high school, enrolled at Fort Scott Junior College in Kansas. After graduation he complained of leg pain on the first day of fall practice and died that night in a Fort Scott hospital at the age of 19. Poplar Bluff High School retired his jersey.

Eddie played junior college football at Centerville, Iowa, for two years before coming to SEMO. The 6-foot, 220-pounder was an All-MIAA fullback, graduating in 1972 with a B.S. in education. He was drafted in the seventh round by Buffalo, but O.J. Simpson proved too much competition. He returned to Poplar Bluff as a teacher’s aide and assistant football coach.

After attending a Cardinal tryout session in the spring of 1973, Eddie was asked to join the summer camp, where he impressed the Red Bird coaches with his determination to learn and perform the duties of a blocking back. He could run too.

But all that concern with plays and opposing linebackers stopped abruptly when the right arm gave way. After a lot of treatment by the Cardinal physician, who had never dealt with such an injury before, Eddie returned to Cape Girardeau to let his wounds heal while regrouping for another try. In the meantime he accepted the opening at the civic center.

Under his supervision, the center entertains about 45 kids a day with cooking classes, piano lessons, shuffleboard, basketball, art classes and just about anything else anyone can think of doing. There is a kitchen for feeding the Head Start classes, which also use the building. He and assistant director Elsie Gaden put together a sickle cell test program this weekend, free of charge and administered by volunteers.

He says money is not really a problem at the center, but wants to see parents get more involved. “They should spend some time with the kids, participate in activities, help us get a Boy Scout troop started,” says Moss. “They just come down to pick up the kids and ‘whsht’ they’re gone.”

Eddie Moss has endeared himself to a lot of people in his still-brief career — from football coaches, to a civic center board of directors, to a bunch of kids who respond to his quick humor and patient authority with god-like homage. He could have done more here and might return someday, but right now it’s time to yell “Come on, Eddie.”

According to online sources, Moss returned to the Cardinals and played with the St. Louis team through 1976. His final two years of professional football were spent with the Washington Redskins, and he retired in 1978.