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Kenny Moore papers

 Collection
Identifier: UA 239

Scope and Contents

The Kenny Moore papers document Moore’s career as a sports journalist, author, screenwriter, and accomplished distance runner. The collection includes correspondence, writing and research files, manuscripts and screenplays, track memorabilia and ephemera, materials related to athletic committees and activism, and personal papers.

The correspondence series contains personal and professional correspondence. The bulk of the material is emails and letters exchanged between Moore and his friends.

The sports journalism and writing series documents Moore’s sports writing career. This series contains materials related to Moore’s magazine and newspaper articles, books, films, speeches, and student writings. For example, this series includes writing and research files on athletes and sporting events that Moore covered for Sports Illustrated, drafts of Moore’s biography of Bill Bowerman, Bowerman and the Men of Oregon: The Story of Oregon’s Legendary Coach and Nike’s Cofounder, and the screenplay for Without Limits.

The athletic competition and activism series documents Moore’s running career as well as the athletic committees, foundations, and activism that he has been involved in. This series contains track memorabilia and ephemera, meeting minutes, correspondence, draft bills, charters, and notes. For example, this series includes uniforms from the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich and records related to the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Advisory Council.

The personal papers series contains material related to Moore’s personal life, including photographs, calendars, birth certificates, a high school diploma, notes, workout schedules, and memorial materials.

Dates

  • 1908-2015
  • Majority of material found within 1960s-2013

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to the public. Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room. Collection or parts of collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives in advance of your visit to allow for transportation time.

Access to the correspondence series folder "Affidavit for Luiz de Oliveira, 1987" is closed until 2057 due to the presence of legal materials about a third party.

Access to the sports journalism and writing series folder "Lindgren, 1977-1978" is closed until 2048 due to the presence of legal materials about a third party.

Access to the sports journalism and writing series folder "The tears of Aberash, 2003-2005" is closed until 2075 due to the presence of legal materials about a third party.

Conditions Governing Technical Access

Collection includes sound recordings, moving images, and digital files to which access is restricted. Access to these materials is governed by repository policy and may require the production of listening or viewing copies. Researchers requiring access must notify Special Collections and University Archives in advance and pay fees for reproduction services as necessary.

Cassette tapes described in the long form non-fiction subseries, located in box 12, have been reformatted and are available upon request as digital audio files.

Conditions Governing Use

Property rights reside with Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs. All requests for permission to publish collection materials must be submitted to Special Collections and University Archives. The reader must also obtain permission of the copyright holder.

Archival material may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal and/or state right to privacy laws and other regulations.

Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g. a cause of action for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of Oregon assumes no responsibility.

If a researcher finds sensitive personal information in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the reading room staff.

Biographical / Historical

Kenny Moore was a sports journalist, author, screenwriter, distance runner, and former Olympian.

Kenneth Clark Moore was born on December 1, 1943, in Portland, Oregon. Moore grew up in Eugene, Oregon, and graduated from North Eugene High School in 1962. He received a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Oregon in 1966. While attending the University of Oregon, he ran track and cross country and was coached by Bill Bowerman. He was a three-time All-American and contributed to the school’s back-to-back NCAA track and field titles in 1964 and 1965. He was named the university’s top student-athlete in 1966. Moore attended one year of law school at Stanford University from 1966-1967 before deciding to return to the University of Oregon to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.

Moore won national titles in the 1967 AAU Cross Country National Championship and the 1971 Pan American Games marathon. He ran the marathon in the 1968 Mexico City and 1972 Munich Olympic Games, finishing 14th and 4th, respectively. Moore won the largest footrace in the world, the San Francisco Bay to Breakers, six consecutive times from 1968-1973, making him the all-time leader in victories in the race.

From 1968-1970, Moore served in the U.S. Army, finishing as a Spec. 4 in Public Information at Ft. Lewis, WA. Moore worked as a substitute teacher and was a writing teacher at the University of Oregon from 1971-1972. He received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Oregon in 1972.

Beginning in 1971, Moore served as the director of the Oregon Track Club. From 1973-1980 he was a founding member of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Advisory Council. From 1976-1977 he was a co-editor of the Final Report of The President’s Commission on Olympic Sports, which led to the Amateur Athletic Act of 1978, breaking up the Amateur Athletic Union and guaranteeing athlete’s voices and votes in all national sports governing bodies. Moore was the chairman of the Steve Prefontaine Foundation from 1976-1979. He was a member of the International Competition Committee of the Athletics Congress from 1977-1980.

Moore was a contract writer for Sports Illustrated from 1971-1980 and a senior writer from 1980-1995. In 1979, Moore won the Excellence in Running Journalism award from the Road Runners Club of America. Near the end of his career with Sports Illustrated, Moore campaigned for the freedom of Mamo Wolde, the 1968 Olympic marathon champion who had been imprisoned in Ethiopia.

In 1982, Moore’s book, Best Efforts: World Class Runners and Races, was published. Moore was a co-writer and executive producer of Robert Towne’s 1998 film, Without Limits, about his late friend Steve Prefontaine and former coach Bill Bowerman. Moore also had acting roles in Towne’s films Personal Best (1982) and Tequila Sunrise (1988). Moore co-wrote and appeared in the 1995 documentary about Steve Prefontaine, Fire on the Track: The Steve Prefontaine Story. Moore wrote a biography of Bill Bowerman, Bowerman and the Men of Oregon: The Story of Oregon’s Legendary Coach and Nike’s Cofounder, which was published in 2006. Moore also contributed to the books And Then the Vulture Eats You: Ultramarathons: Journeys of Discovery (1990) and Track Town USA: Hayward Field, America’s Crown Jewel of Track and Field (2010).

Moore was inducted into the University of Oregon Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.

Moore died on May 4, 2022, in Kailua, Hawaii.

Extent

34.25 linear feet (23 containers) : 21 record storage boxes; 1 textile box; 1 half manuscript box

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Kenny Moore was a sports journalist, author, screenwriter, distance runner, and former Olympian. The collection includes correspondence, writing and research files, manuscripts and screenplays, track memorabilia and ephemera, materials related to athletic committees and activism, and personal papers.

Arrangement

The Kenny Moore papers are arranged in four series:
1. Correspondence, 1966-2013
2. Sports journalism and writing, 1908-2015
3. Athletic competition and activism, 1955-2012
4. Personal papers, 1943-2012

Series 2. Sports journalism and writing is arranged in three subseries:
2.1. Magazine and newspaper articles, 1961-2015
2.2. Long form non-fiction, 1908-2013
2.3. Other writing and professional papers, 1963-2013

Series 3. Athletic competition and activism is arranged in three subseries:
3.1. Track memorabilia and ephemera, 1955-2012
3.2. Athletic committees, foundations, and activism, 1963-2009
3.3. Newspaper clippings and publicity, 1963-1974

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Kenneth Moore, 2001-2018.

Existence and Location of Copies

Sound recordings in this collection are available as digital audio files from Special Collections & University Archives.

Related Materials

Related materials are found in the following collections: Bill Bowerman papers, UA 003

Processing Information

Collection processed by Sarah Lueders, 2020.

Processing Information

This collection contains unprocessed digital material. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives for more information.

Titles in quotations were supplied by the creator.

Source

Title
Guide to Kenny Moore Papers
Status
Complete Description
Author
Sarah Lueders
Date
2020
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid is written in English
Sponsor
Processing of this collection was supported by the Robert and Dorris Thomas Endowment Fund.

Repository Details

Part of the University of Oregon Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives Repository

Contact:
1299 University of Oregon
Eugene OR 97403-1299 USA