The first time Lloyd Carr saw Gary Moeller, Carr was an assistant at Nativity High in Detroit and Moeller was on Bo Schembechler’s staff at Michigan.
“Bo had just gotten the job and they put out the word for all high school coaches that they were having a clinic at Crisler Arena,” Carr recalled. “There was a big crowd there and for a short visit, Gary Moeller got up and spoke to the high school coaches and I thought: ‘Oh my, what a guy he is; what a coach!’“
The year was 1969 and little did Carr know then that the guy who impressed him so much would be the best man at his second wedding and have a dramatic effect on the rest of his life.
Moeller died Monday at the age of 81.
In late 1977, the two met in a Chicago airport. By then, Moeller was the head coach at Illinois and Carr was the secondary coach at Eastern Michigan.
“I was so excited to be with him,” Carr said. “We sat at a table right outside where you got on the plane and we were sitting there drawing up plays. He’s asking me questions and I’m drawing up the answers on napkins.”
Carr thought the interview went well and he felt even better when Moeller told him he would call him in a couple of days.
But two days turned into five and Carr finally mustered all of the gumption he had and called Moeller, hoping he still had a shot at the job.
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“I was so excited about the possibility of being hired at Illinois,” he said. “I was really nervous. I didn’t know what to do, but I called him and he said: ‘Hey, I’ve had some other things going on, but I’ll get back to you tomorrow.’“
Christmas came early for Carr that year and little did he know that the phone call changed the trajectory of his life, a life that included him coaching the 1997 national championship team at Michigan.
“It was one of the great moments of my life; he was special,” said Carr, his voice cracking with emotion. “A couple of years later I was offered a job at Michigan, but honestly, I don’t remember a more exciting time than when Gary Moeller called me and asked: ‘Coach, do you want to join our staff at Illinois?’“
Moeller and Carr coached together for the final two of Moeller’s three years at Illinois before he was fired after going 6-24-3.
Those three seasons were an unmitigated disaster in the won-loss column, but I have maintained that you learn far more about a person in defeat than in victory.
That is why Carr holds Moeller in such high esteem.
“Those two years at Illinois were tough years, but you learn so much along the way,” he said. “The thing that made Mo special was that no matter how bad things got, he stood tall. He never blamed the players, he never blamed the coaches when things went bad and when things when good, he was who you wanted to be with.”
Don Nehlen had hired Carr as the secondary coach at West Virginia shortly after the staff was fired.
Carr’s tenure at West Virginia last only a few months when he received a surprising call from Moeller, who had returned to U-M as the offensive coordinator.
“I was sitting in a restaurant in Morgantown, West Virginia, and I got a call and it was Mo,” Carr said. “He said: ‘Bo’s calling Don Nehlen to ask permission to talk with you. I think he wants to hire you.”
Before he knew it, a waitress approached him and asked if he was Coach Carr because there was a phone call for him. On the line was Schembechler asking him to be in Ann Arbor for an interview the next day.
“I got up at 5 a.m. to get to Pittsburgh,” Carr said. “I didn’t want to miss that plane. Jerry Meter picked me up at the airport and brought me to Ann Arbor.”
Carr first coached the secondary at U-M when Bill McCartney left to become head coach at Colorado and then became defensive coordinator in 1987.
Moeller replaced Schembechler in 1990 and in his five seasons as head coach the Wolverines won or shared three Big Ten titles and earned a bowl game each season.
The U-M offense became more innovative under Moeller and the sky seemed to be the limit for the Wolverines with Moeller calling the shots.
“I loved every minute of the 10 years I was an assistant coach at Michigan and worked for Bo and Mo,” Carr said.
Truth be told, Carr would have been happy to remain Moeller’s defensive coordinator for the rest of his career.
But Moeller was forced to resign after an alcohol-related disorderly conduct incident in a Southfield restaurant.
U-M president James J. Duderstadt was insanely jealous of the power Schembechler wielded on campus and insisted that Moeller resign, seemingly just to spite Schembechler, who had hand-picked Moeller to be his successor.
Soon thereafter, Carr found himself Michigan’s interim head coach.
While the U-M job was one of the plum jobs in the country, Carr was sick about the way it all played out.
It took over a week for Carr to move into the head coach’s office in Schembechler Hall. To him, that was Mo’s office.
It took the prodding and insistence of the football staff’s administrative assistants before he moved into the office he never wanted to be his under those circumstances.
“I wish I could go back, we all do,” Carr said. “But the amazing thing about this man is the way he handled the most important point in his in his career. He was a champion. He stood tall in the worst of times.”
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Carr had no bigger fan than Moeller and he was thrilled for Carr when they captured the 1997 national title.
The two remained close and they often had lunch together after Carr retired in 2007. Moeller was delighted when Carr was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2011.
“I was so lucky,” Carr said. “I have so much to be thankful for and Gary Moeller, there’s no one I have to thank more than him. He was a great friend.
“If Gary Moeller is your friend, you can’t ask for anything more.”
Mick McCabe is a former longtime columnist for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at mick.mccabe11@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @mickmccabe1. Save $5 on his new book, “Mick McCabe’s Golden Yearbook: 50 Great Years of Michigan’s Best High School Players, Teams & Memories,” by ordering right now at McCabe.PictorialBook.com.