Of Pseudonyms and the Sun Bowl
Bill Moseley is probably the only player in the history of the Sun Bowl to score two touchdowns–of any kind–under an assumed name.
By Willie G. Moseley
Like that of every other member of the Greatest Generation, Bill Moseley’s day–to–day lifestyle in the early 1940s was abruptly interrupted by America’s entry into World War II. The native of Montgomery, Alabama, had a football scholarship to the University of Kentucky as a fullback. However, he left college after the war began to join the service.
And his military sojourn over the next several years would result in an intriguing anecdote in the annals of University of New Mexico football.
Moseley joined the Air Corps, and during his enlistment, his assignments took him to Massachusetts, Idaho, and New Mexico. His passion for football remained undiminished, however, and while he was assigned to the Bay State for cadet training in 1943, he registered at nearby Massachusetts State College in Amherst and played for that school’s team.
Such wasn’t the case in 1944 at Gowen Field in Boise, Idaho, where Moseley trained for several months as a tail gunner on a B–24 Liberator bomber.
Ultimately, he was transferred to Kirtland Field in Albuquerque, New Mexico, arriving there in mid–1945 to train on the newest bomber in the Air Corps, the B–29 Superfortress. Even though the war in the Pacific was winding down, Kirtland air crews practiced bombing runs in the sparse New Mexico desert, fully expecting to be sent to the Far East to bomb the Japanese mainland.
However, that scenario changed some weeks after Moseley arrived in Albuquerque–he recalls the atomic bomb detonation in July at the Trinity site, as do many other persons who were in Albuquerque and surrounding area that summer. He noted the explosion broke windows in Albuquerque, and that the cover story was that an ammunition dump had blown up. The war ended soon afterwards, and Moseley ended up remaining at Kirtland to complete his enlistment.
And it was during this assignment that he latched onto another opportunity to play college football, this time for the UNM Lobos. Moseley signed up for classes in the fall of ’45, and joined the Lobos gridiron squad, as did a former star player for the Western Kentucky College Hilltoppers (and also now a member of the Air Corps, assigned to Kirtland), Lou Cullen. Other servicemen stationed at Kirtland also signed up at UNM and joined the football team.
At one practice session during the 1945 season, a member of the press asked Moseley who he was. The erstwhile Kentucky player had been considering returning to that school following his time in the Air Corps, and was concerned that any publicity about his football efforts elsewhere might hurt his Southeastern Conference eligibility.
The new player muttered an almost–indecipherable response to the newspaper scribe, who then asked “Did you say ‘Dick Moser?’”
“That worked for me,” Moseley now says with a laugh. “I don’t remember if I said anything else or just nodded, but that was the name that ended up being used by some newspapers.”
Assorted Albuquerque newspaper clippings from 1945 and 1946 refer to either “Dick Moser” or “Bill Moser” regarding the Kirtland tail gunner’s football efforts for the Lobos. One story erroneously reports that “Moser” had previously played at Alabama, not Kentucky. Another sports update cites a knee injury to “Moser.”
A football program for the November 24, 1945 contest between New Mexico and Texas Tech lists “Dick Moser” as the Lobos’ starting quarterback.
The Lobos’ 1945 season record resulted in a trip to the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas on New Year’s Day, where they defeated Denver, 34–24. Moseley caught two of quarterback Don Rumley’s three fourth–quarter touchdown passes in that contest. Moseley’s TD receptions were for 47 and 37 yards, and Julio McDonald caught the third touchdown toss, which went for 28 yards.
“I called the play,” Moseley said of his own touchdown receptions. “I noticed their safety was playing too close; maybe seven yards from the line of scrimmage. I told (Rumley) to just heave the ball over the safety, and I’d get to it…which I did.”
Accordingly, Don Rumley is listed in official Sun Bowl records as the first person to throw three touchdown passes in the history of that game, and his yards per pass attempt tally of 17.3 is still the record today.
However, “Dick Moser” is listed—even on the bowl’s web site–as the first player to make two TD receptions in the “Most Touchdown Catches” category.
…Which means that Bill Moseley is probably the only player in the history of the Sun Bowl to score two touchdowns–of any kind–under an assumed name.
“The Montgomery newspaper had a story that said something like ‘Montgomery native Dick Moser scores two touchdowns in Sun Bowl,’” Moseley recalls, “and nobody knew who he was.”
Adding to the mystique is the fact that UNM athletic records read a bit differently, showing “William Moseley” as having lettered for the football team in 1945. The box score for the 1946 Sun Bowl attributes two touchdowns to “Bill Moser.”
Following the completion of his military obligation, Moseley considered remaining at New Mexico, as did Lou Cullen. One newspaper story anticipated the return of “Bill Moser,” Cullen, Rumley, and others.
Cullen and Moseley were actually standing in line together at UNM during registration day when Moseley decided he wanted to return to Kentucky after all, and dropped out of the queue. Lou Cullen did remain at UNM, and went on to a legendary coaching career.
Bill’s football coach at Kentucky for the 1946 and 1947 seasons was Paul “Bear” Bryant. The player who had used a pseudonym when he starred for the Lobos was captain of the Wildcats in 1947, and Kentucky beat Villanova post–season that year in the Great Lakes Bowl (Bryant’s first bowl victory). Following that game, Moseley and several other Kentucky players participated in the 1947 Blue–Grey Game in Montgomery (Bryant was an assistant coach).
After graduating from UK in 1948, Moseley remained at that institution another year to earn a Master’s degree, then coached for seven years (five at a Montgomery high school, two at Kentucky) before entering the business field in the mid–‘50s. His standout player from his high school coaching tenure was Bart Starr, and when the Green Bay Packers legend was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977, he asked his former high school football coach to be his official presenter.
Moseley was also the assistant general manager of the Blue–Grey Game for ten years.
The love of the game of football can be an intense personal experience, and Bill Moseley’s desire to play while serving his country during World War II was so consuming that he changed his name…but the press was none the wiser. During such times, one probably couldn’t really fault an athlete for doing such, and the accomplishment of one “Dick Moser” of the University of New Mexico Lobos is now a part of the permanent records of a major bowl game.
WILLIE G. MOSELEY is the senior writer for Vintage Guitar Magazine, the news editor and photographer for The Tallassee Tribune, and is currently working on his eighth book.