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Eastern Illinois athletics celebrated the lives of two assistant coaches in a month's time, but not before grieving the losses of Jackie Moore and Jeff Hoover, who both passed away unexpectedly in two unrelated incidents.
November 2009 turned out to be one of the difficult months in the recent history of EIU athletics. Moore, a women's basketball assistant in her third year on Brady Sallee's staff, collapsed during a personal workout on campus the evening of Nov. 4 and passed away later that night. She was only 28.
Hoover, football's offensive line assistant coach in his third season on Bob Spoo's staff, was killed in an automobile accident while returning from the Panthers' Football Championship Subdivision playoff game on Nov. 28 at Southern Illinois. He was only 41.
While all of EIU athletics grieved the losses of the two friends and colleagues, women's basketball and football were impacted most. The student-athletes and coaching staffs received the news at vastly different times in their respective seasons as well. Women's basketball was just 10 days away from tipping off its campaign, while football had just wrapped up its year. Perhaps it was fitting that both were Ohio Valley Conference champions during the 2009-10 school year.
Moore's life was celebrated at a Sunday, Nov. 8 memorial service in Lantz Arena. A number of EIU athletics teams donned “J.M.” patches or stickers on their uniforms for the remainder of the 2009-10 school year. Women's basketball adopted her “Go Hard” mantra as one of it's rallying cries and “touched the [base] line” after pregame introductions at Lantz Arena.
Hoover's life was celebrated at a Saturday, Dec. 5 memorial service in the grand ballroom of the University Union. Panther football's conference championship T-shirts featured Hoover's likeness as well as “In Memory of Hoov.” He will continue to be remembered by the team and his fellow coaches throughout the upcoming 2010 season.
When EIU women's basketball clinched the OVC regular-season title outright on Feb. 25 at Lantz, Sallee hugged his assistant coaches, Lee Buchanan and Quacy Timmons, after the final buzzer sounded. He called it a four-person hug afterwards, as both the team and coaching staff took time to honor the memory of Moore. Sallee also held up a picture of Moore two days later when EIU posed for a picture with the conference championship trophy.
Hoover's family as well as EIU strength and conditioning coach Eric Cash and his family were also in the vehicle at the time of the accident. Thankfully all other parties involved were able to make a full recovery from their injuries.
The deaths of both staff members in less than a month's time hit the EIU athletic community hard. But the celebration of their lives that followed were grand opportunities to gather as a group and remember Jackie Moore and Jeff Hoover for the impacts they had on the people who play, work and root for the Panthers.
