Jack Moss
Jack Moss was born and raised in Kalamazoo. He attended Kalamazoo State High School (later U-High and now no longer in operation). After high school Jack went on to enroll in Western Michigan University until the end of his junior year. At that time he took a full time position with the Kalamazoo Gazette in 1948. During the next 54 years Jack worked for the Gazette in all but 2 years while he served in the Korean Conflict.
If you were a high school athlete or coach in the Kalamazoo area or a college athlete at Western Michigan University or Kalamazoo College, you appreciated the great sports coverage that was in the Kalamazoo Gazette. Over the years Jack Moss made it one of the best sports papers in Michigan and around the country. For his efforts he won 9 Associated Press Writing Awards. He also helped found the Mid-American Conference Media Association.
His career allowed him to cover the Olympics, World Series, Super Bowl, 21 major college bowl games (Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, etc), NCAA Men's and Women's Finals, U.S. Open, Wimbledon, the U.S. Open Golf and much more. Most writers would say that those big events were the highlight of their careers...but not Jack Moss. Jack considers his most memorable moments in sports were covering the local Kalamazoo sports scene and working closely with athletes and coaches. This, he considered, is the purest of sports. Jack Moss took pride in his work and in his positive stance on prep athletics.
Jack was instrumental in the extending and detailed coverage of the KCC Invitational during it's formative years. The tournament received daily front page headlines that generated thousands of local fans to visit the KCC grounds. Jack was inside the ropes and found great pleasure in reporting on our storied tournament year after year.
Today, Jack is retired and living in Fort Myers, FL with his wife of 53 years, Janet. They have 3 children: John, Tom, and Barbara.
If you were a high school athlete or coach in the Kalamazoo area or a college athlete at Western Michigan University or Kalamazoo College, you appreciated the great sports coverage that was in the Kalamazoo Gazette. Over the years Jack Moss made it one of the best sports papers in Michigan and around the country. For his efforts he won 9 Associated Press Writing Awards. He also helped found the Mid-American Conference Media Association.
His career allowed him to cover the Olympics, World Series, Super Bowl, 21 major college bowl games (Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, etc), NCAA Men's and Women's Finals, U.S. Open, Wimbledon, the U.S. Open Golf and much more. Most writers would say that those big events were the highlight of their careers...but not Jack Moss. Jack considers his most memorable moments in sports were covering the local Kalamazoo sports scene and working closely with athletes and coaches. This, he considered, is the purest of sports. Jack Moss took pride in his work and in his positive stance on prep athletics.
Jack was instrumental in the extending and detailed coverage of the KCC Invitational during it's formative years. The tournament received daily front page headlines that generated thousands of local fans to visit the KCC grounds. Jack was inside the ropes and found great pleasure in reporting on our storied tournament year after year.
Today, Jack is retired and living in Fort Myers, FL with his wife of 53 years, Janet. They have 3 children: John, Tom, and Barbara.
KALAMAZOO, MI — Jack Moss, a staple of the Kalamazoo sports scene for more than 50 years, died Tuesday January 22, 2019 after a 20-year battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 91 years old.
Moss was the sports editor of the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1967 until his retirement in 2002. Born on Sept. 19, 1927 to John and Elsie Moss, Moss got his start in news writing with the student paper at Kalamazoo State High School, where he also played basketball.
He began writing for the Gazette while attending Western Michigan University and was hired for a full-time position at the paper in 1948.
In 1950, he took a break from the paper to serve his country in the United States Army and was stationed in Germany. He married his wife, Jan, while on leave and returned to Kalamazoo and rejoined the Gazette in 1952. Former Gazette editor and publisher Dan Ryan appointed Moss sports editor in 1967, and although Moss retired from the post after 35 years, he continued to write for the paper as a guest columnist from his home in Fort Myers, Florida for the next several years. "He just loved it," Moss' daughter, Barbara Moss-Hogan, said of her father's feelings for his work. "We never could go anywhere, even to get a gallon of milk, without people running into him to say, 'Hi.'" Even though he moved to Florida shortly after his retirement from the Gazette, Moss' name can still be found throughout Kalamazoo, from the Jack Moss Press Box at Homer Stryker Field to the annual Jack Moss Scholarship, which is awarded to high-achieving high school student-athletes from the Kalamazoo area. "Kalamazoo really was his life, and he loved the people there," Moss Hogan said of her father.
From hobnobbing with good friend and philanthropist/entrepreneur Jim Gilmore to talking with a random person walking down the Kalamazoo Mall, Moss showed everyone equal respect, his daughter said. His reach also extended beyond Kalamazoo, as he counted former Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler and former Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes among his friends. "As coach, you walk into a press conference, and you know there are some guys you can trust and there are other guys you don't have a lot of respect for," Schembechler told the Gazette in 2002 for its retirement story on Moss. "Jack was a guy you could trust. I think all coaches felt that way."
Jack and his wife, Jan, who died in Oct. 2017, raised three children in Kalamazoo. John Moss, the oldest of their children, played football at Western Michigan under coach Bill Doolittle, while Tom went on to attend Louisiana State University, and Barbara, the youngest, studied at Central Michigan. Moss became the first sportswriter inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 2005, a moment which served as one of three cherished memories from his storied career. “There were three things he truly loved that he cherished more than anything,” his daughter said. "One was when he retired, and the WMU marching band came to his retirement party. He was so overwhelmed, he bawled. “Two was when my dad got an honorary doctorate from WMU, and he gave the graduation speech that year. And three was being inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame as the first and only sportswriter at the time.”
While his title was sports editor, Moss was far more than that. He wrote a daily column that ended with a section titled “This ‘n’ That,” which was a who’s who of names in the community, spanning generations. "You can’t remember the name of the big kid who played left tackle for Kalamazoo Central in 1950? Ask Jack Moss,” Ryan wrote in a special section commemorating Moss’ retirement in 2002. “You wonder where the girl who scored the winning basket for Paw Paw against Mattawan in 1968 is today? Read This 'n' That. Jack will tell you that she’s now a doctor in California.”
In that same special section, former publisher George Arwady called Moss “probably the best-known local resident for 50 miles around.”
“Whether you love him or want to strangle him, I can attest that the Kalamazoo community and the Kalamazoo Gazette have benefited greatly from Jack’s career here,” Arwady wrote. “Jack truly loves Kalamazoo and he cares deeply about its people and their future.”
Moss was the sports editor of the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1967 until his retirement in 2002. Born on Sept. 19, 1927 to John and Elsie Moss, Moss got his start in news writing with the student paper at Kalamazoo State High School, where he also played basketball.
He began writing for the Gazette while attending Western Michigan University and was hired for a full-time position at the paper in 1948.
In 1950, he took a break from the paper to serve his country in the United States Army and was stationed in Germany. He married his wife, Jan, while on leave and returned to Kalamazoo and rejoined the Gazette in 1952. Former Gazette editor and publisher Dan Ryan appointed Moss sports editor in 1967, and although Moss retired from the post after 35 years, he continued to write for the paper as a guest columnist from his home in Fort Myers, Florida for the next several years. "He just loved it," Moss' daughter, Barbara Moss-Hogan, said of her father's feelings for his work. "We never could go anywhere, even to get a gallon of milk, without people running into him to say, 'Hi.'" Even though he moved to Florida shortly after his retirement from the Gazette, Moss' name can still be found throughout Kalamazoo, from the Jack Moss Press Box at Homer Stryker Field to the annual Jack Moss Scholarship, which is awarded to high-achieving high school student-athletes from the Kalamazoo area. "Kalamazoo really was his life, and he loved the people there," Moss Hogan said of her father.
From hobnobbing with good friend and philanthropist/entrepreneur Jim Gilmore to talking with a random person walking down the Kalamazoo Mall, Moss showed everyone equal respect, his daughter said. His reach also extended beyond Kalamazoo, as he counted former Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler and former Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes among his friends. "As coach, you walk into a press conference, and you know there are some guys you can trust and there are other guys you don't have a lot of respect for," Schembechler told the Gazette in 2002 for its retirement story on Moss. "Jack was a guy you could trust. I think all coaches felt that way."
Jack and his wife, Jan, who died in Oct. 2017, raised three children in Kalamazoo. John Moss, the oldest of their children, played football at Western Michigan under coach Bill Doolittle, while Tom went on to attend Louisiana State University, and Barbara, the youngest, studied at Central Michigan. Moss became the first sportswriter inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 2005, a moment which served as one of three cherished memories from his storied career. “There were three things he truly loved that he cherished more than anything,” his daughter said. "One was when he retired, and the WMU marching band came to his retirement party. He was so overwhelmed, he bawled. “Two was when my dad got an honorary doctorate from WMU, and he gave the graduation speech that year. And three was being inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame as the first and only sportswriter at the time.”
While his title was sports editor, Moss was far more than that. He wrote a daily column that ended with a section titled “This ‘n’ That,” which was a who’s who of names in the community, spanning generations. "You can’t remember the name of the big kid who played left tackle for Kalamazoo Central in 1950? Ask Jack Moss,” Ryan wrote in a special section commemorating Moss’ retirement in 2002. “You wonder where the girl who scored the winning basket for Paw Paw against Mattawan in 1968 is today? Read This 'n' That. Jack will tell you that she’s now a doctor in California.”
In that same special section, former publisher George Arwady called Moss “probably the best-known local resident for 50 miles around.”
“Whether you love him or want to strangle him, I can attest that the Kalamazoo community and the Kalamazoo Gazette have benefited greatly from Jack’s career here,” Arwady wrote. “Jack truly loves Kalamazoo and he cares deeply about its people and their future.”
