UW basketball assistant Moore’s wife, daughter killed
Wrong-way driver hits family in Michigan crash
MADISON - The wife and daughter of University of Wisconsin assistant basketball coach Howard Moore were killed in a head-on collision Saturday in Michigan.
Moore’s wife, Jennifer, and daughter, Jaidyn, were killed. Moore and his son, Jerrell, survived. Jerrell’s injuries were minor.
According to several former UW players, Moore did not suffer lifethreatening injuries but he was in a coma early Saturday.
UW head coach Greg Gard planned to fly to Michigan Saturday to be with the Moore family.
According to reports: A vehicle driven by a 23-year-old woman was going the wrong way on M-14 early Saturday and caused a multiple-vehicle crash. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
A third vehicle was involved but the driver of that vehicle was treated for minor injuries.
“Jennifer was a sweetheart,” said UW men’s hockey coach Tony Granato,
like Howard Moore a native of Chicago. “I would see her at events, around the Kohl Center and in the community. She always had a smile on her face and was always upbeat...
“He’s one of us. He is a brother. He is a Badger. He is family. …
“He is one of the most down-to-earth persons that you’ll ever meet in your life and that is exactly what Badger athletics is all about.
“To have to watch him and all that he has suffered through in the last few hours, it is one of those days in life you try to figure out how this type of thing could happen.”
The news prompted an outpouring of sorrow and support for Moore on social media.
“I just pulled over to the side of the road and sobbed when I heard the news about Coach Moore’s wife and daughter,” one man tweeted. “Family is everything to him. I can’t understand it. How can anyone understand this.”
“Heartbroken for @Howard_Moore and his family,” said another. “They are some of the people that make @BadgerMBB so special.”
Moore played at UW from 1990 through ’95 and played for three coaches – Steve Yoder, Stu Jackson and Stan Van Gundy.
He was an assistant at several stops before returning to UW in 2005 under Bo Ryan. Moore stayed on through the 2009-’10 season. He left to take over the Illinois-Chicago program and coached there for five seasons.
Moore was a studio analyst for the Big Ten Network in December 2015 when Ryan announced he was retiring. Gard hired Moore to finish out that season and Moore has remained on the staff.
LaVall Jordan, a former assistant at Iowa and Michigan and the head coach at UW-Milwaukee in 2016-’17, shared his thoughts on Twitter.
“Wisconsin assistant Howard Moore has been a great friend and mentor to me,” he wrote. “Many prayers go up for him & his family during this devastating time. Absolutely heartbreaking news.”
Mike Mahnke, who has been the public-address announcer at UW football and men’s basketball games since 1995, wasn’t surprised to see the plethora of support on social media.
“All the stuff you are seeing on social media, the incredible outpouring of love for him, goes a long way to show how many people he has touched,” said Mahnke, a 1977 graduate of Racine Horlick High School. “He is such a genuine individual and a genuine family man and a genuine man of faith...
“So many things are going through my head now. He’s got a little son that he is going to have to raise himself. He has a huge family of friends that will do whatever they can to help support him. But at the end of the day when you go home at night it is just you and your son.
“I’m still trying to wrap my mind around it.”
The loss of his wife and daughter comes less than two years after Moore’s uncle was killed in a shooting in Chicago.
Moore was born and raised in Chicago.
“Please pray for my family as my uncle, Leroy, was caught in crossfire and killed in Chicago last night,” Moore wrote on Twitter on July 19, 2017. “I’m stunned and devastated right now.”
His coaching colleagues, his friends and former UW players felt that devastation Saturday when they learned that Moore had lost his wife and daughter.
“We shared lots of stories about cheering the White Sox on,” Granato said. “He is a wonderful person who has gone through some different tragedies in his life.”
Talaya Davis, the mother of former UW forward Nigel Hayes, recalled a time when her son and fellow Ohio native Vitto Brown couldn’t return home for Christmas. Jennifer Moore made sure the two UW players had a home away from home for the holidays.
“She invited them over and took care of them, fed them and loved them just like a mother,” Davis said. “None of the mothers were there. I thanked her so much. She stepped in and did it all.”
Brown noted that his parents and sister had come to Madison to visit him. As a result, Jennifer Moore invited the quartet over for dinner.
“They treated us like we had known them for years,” Brown said. “Coach Moore’s wife really had it going in the kitchen. I didn’t know how she was going to feed all of us.”
Mahnke and Moore can talk about basketball and their faith in Christ.
“The question that always comes up is: ‘Why does this happen?’” Mahnke said. “No one really knows for sure. But I can say this. If there is a man who is prepared for something like this and how to remain strong in not only his faith but also strong for his family, it is someone like Howard.”