Why UConn hoops coaching legend Tom Moore of Millbury is walking away
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In Tom Moore’s first two years coaching, in 1987 on Paul Baker’s staff at Worcester State, and in 1988 as a volunteer assistant under Jack Renkens at Assumption, he made a grand total of $875.
When Moore became Worcester State’s head coach in 1989, his annual salary was $3,500.
Moore supplemented his income by teaching at Forest Grove Middle School in Worcester during the day and working at a local bar on off nights, and he made ends meet by living at home in Millbury with his ever-supportive parents.
Even as Moore’s career ascended the national stage as an assistant at the University of Connecticut, where he was part of four NCAA championship teams, the most for any assistant coach in the modern era of the NCAA Tournament.
Moore never forgot his humble beginnings.
“What it does,” Moore said, “is it tests whether you really, truly want to do this or not. ‘How bad do I want to do this?’
“Once I got into it,” Moore said, “I loved it and at no point did I turn back.”
Moore’s illustrious coaching career spanned almost four decades, including 21 years over two stints with the Huskies. On July 23, Moore announced his retirement from UConn.
The 61-year-old Moore served under hall-of-famer Jim Calhoun from 1994-2007 and was the team’s associate head coach in 2006 and 2007. Moore returned to UConn as an assistant to current coach Dan Hurley in 2018. Moore was the program’s first general manager during the 2025-26 season.
“I feel young and I feel like there’s a lot more I want to do in basketball,” Moore said, “but I feel sort of burnt out with college coaching and the GM position. To me, it feels like it’s become a young man’s game, and I think at this level you need to have endless amounts of energy, passion and enthusiasm for the job just to have a fighting chance to do well.
“The demands of it – 12 months a year – became too much,” Moore said. “The work/life balance due to the transfer portal and the NIL stuff has gotten worse the last five years and it just felt to me it was time to move that position to someone younger who’s got that work ethic and that passion for it where they can commit every waking moment to it. I had that for a long time, and I don’t have it right now.”
Moore said he considered retiring after the 2024-25 season, but after conversations with Hurley decided to return and take on the GM role.
“I think I helped and it was good,” Moore said. “I learned a lot, but it feels like now’s the time (to retire).”
Moore is not done working. He is interested in possibly becoming a TV color analyst.
“It would be a chance to feel like you’re still involved and keep your connections to the coaches around the game,” Moore said.
Moore and his wife, Eileen, have three daughters, Elizabeth, Catherine and Caroline.
Moore played basketball at St. John’s High and earned his bachelor’s degree in print journalism from Boston University in 1987. He figured he would get his start at a local newspaper covering high school sports.
“Then it hit me that I didn’t know that I wanted to start that journey,” Moore said. “I did some soul searching and thought I could give college basketball coaching a try.”
Moore talked to then-BU coach Mike Jarvis and Terriers assistant Bill Herrion of Oxford about it. Moore got to know Jarvis and Herrion while covering the team for the school newspaper.
“They were the first two who said, ‘You can do this,’” Moore said. “They laid out the path for me and encouraged me.”
After five years as Worcester State’s coach, Moore, in 1994, joined Calhoun’s staff and went on to help the Huskies to national titles in 1999 and 2004.
In 10 years at Quinnipiac, Moore went 162-146 with four postseason appearances. He was the 2010 NEC Coach of the Year. Moore was fired after the 2017 season and joined Hurley’s staff at the University of Rhode Island.
In Moore’s second go-around at UConn, he helped the Huskies to back-to-back national championships in 2023 and 2024.
“The two probably biggest breaks of my career were Coach Calhoun believing in me at the beginning of my career and giving me a shot and Dan believing enough in me toward the end of my career,” Moore said. “After I was let go at Quinnipiac, to hire me at Rhode Island and bring me back to UConn. To have two of arguably the top 10 coaches in the history of the sport believe in you at the beginning and end of your career was incredibly good fortune for me.”
Moore’s memories are many, but the 1999 national title, UConn’s first, and the 2024 championship are among the best.
UConn, as a 10-point underdog, beat Duke, 77-74, to capture the ’99 crown.
“The four national championships are all awesome,” Moore said, “but the first one was extra special because I could tell that night it put Coach Calhoun in a different stratosphere as far as his legacy and it put UConn basketball in another category.”
In 2024, the Huskies became the first men’s basketball team to repeat since Florida in 2006-07. UConn captured the Big East Conference regular-season and tournament titles, won all six of its NCAA games by double-digit margins and by a record total of 140 points.
“I would argue the 2024 team may end up being one of the most dominant teams in the history of college basketball in terms of margins of victory and how complete and thorough that team was,” Moore said. “That team was an absolute monster. I never felt in games of that magnitude a certainty that we would win like I did with that team.”
One of Moore’s favorite moments in all of his coaching years was when Worcester State, led by current Lancers coach Al Pettway, Rob Ashton, Scott Fenner and Jim Donnelly, among others, beat Salem State to capture the MASCAC title and earn a bid to the 1994 NCAA Division 3 Tournament.
“Those guys gave so much,” Moore said. “To be part of that is something I’ll never forget.
“I’ve been blessed,” Moore said. “I look back and I’m happy and proud. It feels like now is the right time to let someone else step into it.”
–Contact Jennifer Toland at [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @JenTolandTG.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Why UConn hoops coaching legend Tom Moore of Millbury is walking away