Aug. 22, 2002

This story originally appeared in the Times Picayune on November 16, 2001.

Reprinted by permission

NEW ORLEANS -- The run that sticks with Patrick Ramsey came last year against SMU, with the first half drawing to a close.

"It was a draw play," the Tulane quarterback recalled. "It was second-and-long. We were in our territory. We were leading, and we didn't want to do anything foolish."

Ramsey handed the ball to his freshman running back, and Mewelde Moore was off on the kind of journey that has characterized a career that will not be 2 years old until the Green Wave closes out 2001 Saturday against Southern Miss.

What about that run, No. 26?

"I remember going to my left, lowering my shoulder and slipping away from a cornerback," Moore said. "Then I remember cutting back, lowering my shoulder and running till someone got me."

He ran for 42 yards, far enough to set up a field goal on the final play of the half in a road game won by the visitors 29-17. "That run," Ramsey said, "convinced everyone we could win."

Moore has rushed for a school record 1,293 yards this season, and he has a game left to tack on a few more.

The record Moore shattered was set 53 years ago (1948), when Eddie Price ran for 1,178 yards on a Tulane team that finished 9-1.

Moore is part of a Tulane team expected to lose to Southern Miss (as a 17-point underdog) and finish 3-9.

How tough was it running for yards and yards in a losing cause?

"You always want to win," Moore said. "But I have no regrets. I've enjoyed my two years here. Anybody would be willing to give up records for victories, but sometimes it doesn't work that way."

Records?

Last week against Navy, Moore became the first Tulane player to gain 100 yards rushing (131) and receiving (130) in the same game. Also, he's the first to gain more than 2,000 yards rushing and more than 1,000 yards receiving in a career.

The stats are not what Coach Chris Scelfo will remember most about No. 26.

"I'll remember his work ethic," Scelfo said. "And I'll remember how quickly he adapted from one sport to another. He came right in and didn't miss a beat. Picked up everything right away. Lots of players have made the switch from baseball to football. But I bet no one has done it better than Mo did this season."

Scelfo was talking about someone who is the baseball property of the San Diego Padres, who spent the past summer playing in the Pioneer League for a Padres' farm club in Idaho Falls.

"He had no spring practice, and he had only two weeks of fall practice going into the season opener against BYU," Scelfo said. "But you saw what he did."

What you saw, what a national television audience saw, was Moore launching Tulane's season with a 74-yard run that gave his team a quick 7-0 lead. He finished with 176 yards rushing and three touchdowns (two on pass receptions) in a 70-35 loss to BYU, which is still unbeaten. He did this a month after taking his final cut in the Pioneer League.

A week later, against LSU in Tiger Stadium, he rushed for 50 yards and caught seven passes for 51 yards in a 48-17 defeat.

For someone who spent his high school days in Baton Rouge, the Tiger Stadium experience was special.

"It was sure loud, hard hearing the signals," he said. "I do remember one run. I'm going down the sidelines, on the LSU side, and I get knocked out of bounds, right into Coach (Nick) Saban."

It's a sign of maturity that Moore harbors no ill feelings over the failure of the Tigers to recruit him.

"I'm a believer that things work out for the best," he said. "So far nothing has happened to make me change that feeling."

Once final exams are over in May, Moore will go to Arizona for another baseball summer. So far, he says, he has learned what he doesn't know about the game.

"It's been a bumpy road," he said. "My average fell from around .340 to .235. In the outfield in high school I'd just go after a fly ball and try to catch it. Now I'm finding all about what the pitcher is throwing, the crack-of-the-bat sound and tracking the ball, turning your back and going to the spot where the ball is coming down. Same game but different."

No Yankee-hater, he admits he was happy to see the Diamondbacks win the World Series.

"I've always pulled for the underdog, in all sports," he said. "When Michael Jordan was with the Bulls, I pulled against him because the Bulls kept winning. Now that he's with a bad team, I'm pulling for him. To me, it's always a better story when the underdog wins."