The Historically Black College and University (HBCU) sports world in particular and college athletics in general lost an integral part of its fabric Saturday evening with the passing of Eric Moore. Though his colleagues and friends knew that he had been battling health issues for more than a year, his passing in Raleigh, N. C. Saturday evening still came as a shock.
Moore was a consummate professional and media expert who for more than three decades worked for, served the interests of and covered athletic programs and conferences throughout the country, especially HBCUs.
His website, Onnidan’s Black College Sports Online, online at onnidan.com, debuted in 1995, and was the first major outlet and for many years the only site for comprehensive coverage of HBCU sports on the internet. In many ways it helped birth the explosion of HBCU coverage that now dots the internet.
Onnidan.com has a post on his passing.
Remembering Eric Moore
Eric helped pioneer the use of computer-generated stats in every sport for athletic programs across the college and high school landscape. He spent countless hours training a legion of students and professionals, particularly sports information directors, in the practice. His company, the Onnidan Group, performed the service for schools in all four HBCU conferences as well as for high school, HBCU and NCAA tournaments and championship events, television broadcasts and athletic endeavors large and small.
As executive director for some 30 years of the Black College Sports Information Directors Association, also known as BC-SIDA, he helped organize and promote black college SIDs in the profession, The CIAA inducted him into the John McLendon Hall of Fame in 2019 for his countless contributions.
Eric inspired, advised and tirelessly took under his wing a countless number of young people to help them grow in their professional media endeavors. That was perhaps his greatest contribution.
John Dell, the Winston-Salem Journal’s beat writer for Winston-Salem State University, penned a touching tribute to Eric Sunday. It will likely be the first of many for those he touched with his warm personality and gentle spirit.
April J. Emory, a sports media professional and former SID at Elizabeth City State University, penned an in-depth, two-part series on Eric, his backstory and impact entitled “The Man who brought HBCU Sports to the Internet” last year. Part I and Part II ran on HBCU Gameday.
HBCU Gameday published another story last year, entitled “Eric Moore, the go-to guy for HBCU classics and more” highlighting his enormous contributions.
Details on funeral arrangements were not available at press time.