DENVER (AP) — Doug Moe, an ABA original who gained fame over a rumpled, irreverent and sometimes R-rated decade as coach of the Denver Nuggets in the 1980s, died Tuesday. He was 87.
Moe’s son, David, notified several of the coach’s friends that his father had died after a long bout with cancer, Ron Zappolo, a longtime Denver TV personality and good friend of Moe’s, told The Associated Press.
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The Nuggets, in a social media post, called Moe “a one-of-a-kind leader and person who spearheaded one of the most successful and exciting decades in Nuggets history.”
Moe went 628-529 over 15 seasons as a head coach, including stints with the San Antonio Spurs and Philadelphia 76ers. He never won a title — his most memorable run coming in 1985 when his best Denver team fell to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals. He was the NBA Coach of the Year in 1988.
More than for wins and losses, Moe will be remembered for his motion offense and for the equally entertaining shows he put on while prowling the bench during his coaching days.
His Denver teams led the league in scoring over five straight seasons in the early ‘80s, and he rarely ran a set play.
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He called the people he liked the most “stiffs,” (or worse) and used more colorful language to drive points home to some of his favorite foils — Kiki VanDeWeghe, Danny Schayes and Bill Hanzlik stood out.
The coach stalked the sidelines in one of his well-worn sports coats, usually without a tie (he had a small stash of “emergency suits” in his closet for bigger events), his hair a mess and his overtaxed voice barely at a croak by the end of most games.
The Nuggets bench, along with the 10 rows behind it, was no place for children, but within hours, Moe would be at the bar or coffee shop hanging with many of those same players he’d excoriated, often himself wondering where that foul-mouthed man on the sideline had come from.
“Sometimes I think I have a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality. I clown around a lot before and after a game, but once a game starts, my emotions just take over,” Moe said in a 1983 interview with The New York Times.
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Years before John Elway arrived, Moe was Denver’s biggest sports personality. Zappolo, the sportscaster, said there was a sweet teddy bear behind the game-day bluster.
“I don’t know if there’s ever been a more important sports figure in Denver, not only because of how successful he was, but how colorful he was and how kind he was,” Zappolo said. “There are a lot of people walking around today who feel like they were Doug’s best friend.”
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