On game days, holidays or perhaps any regular day of the week, Coach Dave Moore can be seen driving around Knoxville in his Truckster, a 1997 Buick Roadmaster adorned with UT gear. However, the story behind the animated car is more than the tale of just an enthusiastic fan.
Born in Chattanooga and raised in Oak Ridge, Moore is an east Tennessee native who grew up cheering on the Vols and playing football himself. After he graduated from high school, Moore played football at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga before transferring to UTK and finishing his degree here in 1979.
Shortly after graduating, Moore became a high school teacher and football coach; he was a head football coach for 30 years and has worked at Clinton High School, Sunbright High School, Knoxville Catholic High School and Lenoir City High School.
Moore was employed at Lenoir City High School when the 1999 Columbine High School shooting occurred. He was deeply affected by the massacre and felt called to action in order to prevent future copycat shootings.
Moore believed that by addressing bullying, he would be able to help preemptively address some of the issues that lead to school shootings.
“Most everything that’s traumatic or people respond in those kind of outrages is due to bullying, and they only take so much and they want to retaliate against everyone,” Moore said.
Moore then began a school program called “We Care About You” in order to fight bullying and inform students about how administrators greatly care about each and every individual student.
“We care about every student non-judgmentally,” Moore said. “You don’t judge anyone, much less as a teacher and an educator. We have to care about every student that comes in our class.”
Because of his experience with football, Moore then decided to target athletes with his care initiatives. He began the Careacter Star Athlete Program; the world “Careacter” is intentionally spelled wrong to reflect Moore’s belief that caring should be part of everyone’s character.
Moore explained that the program targets not just success in physical sports matches but success in life overall.
“Life is the biggest game of all, so what’s going to win in the game of life is our character. That’s what’s going to carry us. It may not be 24/7 how much math we know, how much geography we know, but our character, our personality, our demeanor, our attitude. That’s what infectious,” Moore said.
The nationwide program emphasizes the importance of good attitude, character, community service, grades and performance in a well-rounded athlete. The program’s logo is a star, the five points of which are formed by the five pillars of being a Careacter Star Athlete. Schools across the nation select a Star Athlete of the Week based on the elements of Moore’s program.
Moore has traveled to elementary, middle and high schools throughout the country to share his methodology. While creating the organization, Moore was close friends with Phillip Fulmer and Pat Summit, both of whom were employed at UT at the time. The two of them were instrumental in expanding the reach of the Careacter Star Athlete Program.
In terms of the program’s influence at UT, Moore has worked with UT head coaches Fulmer, Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley, Butch Jones and Jeremey Pruitt to bring the Careacter Star Athlete Program to the Vols.
Moore’s prolific work as an educator has not gone unnoticed; in 2001, he was recognized as both the National Educator of the Year and the National Education Association Teacher of the Year.
Along with the Careacter Star Athlete Program, Moore also runs Care 365, his 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. The goal of Care 365 is to spread the message of caring and love to anyone and everyone every single day of every single year, Moore explained.
“We should care about everyone, every day of the year, not just Christmas, Valentine’s, birthdays, etc., which we tend to do, but truly care about everyone unconditionally and non-judgmentally–that’s the key–everyday of the year. That’s not too much to really ask,” Moore said.
Through Care 365, Moore travels around the country in his Truckster cars to speak with schools, firefighters, policemen, nursing homes, public officials and others about the importance of caring for people. He plans to have visited every state in the nation within the next 10 years. A Facebook page entitled “Tracking the Truckster” details Moore’s journey.
Moore explained the role that being a Tennessee Volunteer plays in his endeavors.
“I go representing Knoxville and the state of Tennessee,” Moore said. ”I don’t go representing myself, so I take that very serious. We are the Volunteer state, and I think that speaks for itself, that I volunteer my time and energy to give back and to show other states what our people are about.”
Moore’s Trucksters are three cars that are decorated in the style of the cars from the “National Lampoon’s Vacation” series. A single dad, Moore has three children–Adam, Andrew and Allie–and nine grandchildren, and the films are family favorites.
Moore uses the colorful and enthusiastic cars to help spread his message of care and happiness. He also brings one of the Trucksters to UT’s campus on game days, offering rides to Neyland Stadium to fans of the opposing team, or whoever needs one, to spread the message of care and the Volunteer spirit.
Currently, one of the Trucksters is decorated with extensive UT gear, which is a deviation from the vehicle’s usual attire. However, after UT’s loss to Georgia State at the beginning of the football season, Moore felt that UT needed some extra support. He decided to show his love for his Vols by coating his car in bright orange.
In addition to decorations inspired by Christmas Vacation and the Vols, the Truckster is also donned with names of people who have greatly influenced Mooore’s life, such as Pat Summit, President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. The car is also labelled with the names of people Moore wants to pray and care for, one of which is Jayme Closs, a 13-year-old girl who was kidnapped in 2018.
At the time of her kidnapping, Moore travelled to Closs’s native Wisconsin and met with first responders, school officials and Closs’s grandfather in order to spread words of love, encouragement and care from Tennessee.
East Tennessee resident Cissie Vaughan has volunteered with Care 365 and Moore for about 16 years, and she shared her experience with the program. Vaughan began working with Moore during his Christmas Care initiative.
Vaughan emphasized that Moore wants his non-profit to belong to the whole community.
“These programs do not belong to him,” Vaughan said. “He may have come up with the idea, but he wants other people to also take them and run with them.”
Vaughan discussed how influential the Truckster in particular has been on the UT community. Since decorating the car with UT gear, fans have been known to enthusiastically leap in the street and dance to the tunes of Rocky Top that Moore often blasts from the vehicle.
“If you’re having a bad day and you turn around and you see that Truckster, is it not going to bring you a smile and make you laugh?” Vaughan said. “Most of the people are laughing with him, but even if we get that one angry person who laughs at it, that’s still okay. They smiled, and then before you know it, they’re not laughing at it because Coach refuses to see an angry person.”
Vaughan explained that it is true altruism that has led Moore to pursue service as his life’s work.
“He’s a wonderful person, literally, with a huge heart, he has truly spent his entire life bringing kindness and joy to others,” Vaughan said.
The Truckster and Moore will be making an appearance during Friday afternoon’s Homecoming parade
