Moore Traditional School is a high school located at 6415 Outer Loop in Louisville, Kentucky. Moore is one of just a few schools in the Jefferson County Public Schools system known as a Project 1st Class school. Project 1st Class is a pilot project where each student is issued an Apple iBook laptop computer. Students use these computers to enhance their learning experiences, both at school and at home. Students with internet capability at home can research topics and complete homework from the comfort of their own living rooms. Parents can also use this tool to stay connected to their child's teacher through email and/or online gradebooks. What is now known as Moore Traditional High School began in August, 1968 as grades 7-9 of Marion C. Moore High School. Construction of Moore High School was not yet finished at that time. This resulted in students at Moore sharing nearby Fern Creek High School on a double-sessions arrangement, whereby the students of Fern Creek would occupy Fern Creek High School from very early in the morning until around 12:30 p.m. and students of Moore would occupy Fern Creek High School from 1 p.m until 8 p.m. The students at Moore moved into their beautiful new building in January, 1969. This building, which is the largest of all high schools in Jefferson County, Kentucky, was notable for a number of features. The school's library on the second floor contained a large circle of windows that looked down onto a first floor lobby. The large main gymnasium was contained in the center of the building, off the lobby, and bordered by two parallel rows of classrooms. The art classrooms, located on the second floor of the western end of the building, had balconies that overlooked a courtyard below that separated the main building from the small industrial arts building immediately to its west. Moore High School added a grade in each of the three succeeding years so that by the 1971-1972 school year, the school contained grades 7-12 for the first time. Moore High School immediately made a name for itself in music, as the band won a state championship in those early years and the choral music department put on the musicals "Brigadoon" (1971),"Oklahoma" (1972) and "Pajama Game" (1973). The Moore Mustangs fielded their first varsity football team in the fall of 1970 at a time when the school's highest grade was its junior class (class of 1972). The going was very difficult early on, as the 1970 team finished 0-10, as did the 1971 team (which contained seniors for the first time). The 1972 varsity football team was able to tie Doss High School and Fern Creek High School but still remained winless, finishing 0-8-2. At that time, Moore's combined record stood at 0-28-2. Things changed for the 1973 Moore team, however. Many of its players had played in the three seasons leading up to 1973 and had been toughened by that experience. The first game of the season ended in a 6-6 tie with the Western Warriors. Moore traveled to face Ballard High School for its second game of the season and defeated the Bruins 21-12 for its first victory in the school's history. Moore also defeated Fairdale High School, Durrett High School, Fern Creek High School and Southern High School during the 1973 season to compile its first winning season at 5 wins, 4 losses and 1 tie. The defeat over Southern was notable for the fact that Southern went on to play in the 1973 Class AAA (then the highest Kentucky school classification) state championship game (losing 16-7 to the Trinity Shamrocks) and was quarterbacked by a future Super Bowl MVP, Phil Simms (1986, New York Giants). While Simms did not play against Moore due to an injured shoulder, neither did Moore's multi-talented star quarterback Bruce Gilbert, so the teams played the game on a fairly even basis. Moore's cross country and track programs were very strong from day one due to the individual brilliance of John Wright. Wright, who went on to become a track all-American and win the Southeastern Conference championship in the steeplechase at the University of Tennessee, set the Kentucky state record in the two mile run during the 1973 track season with a time of 9:13.8. To the author's knowledge, that record has never been broken (and probably never will, since the KHSAA moved to metric distances some years afterward.)
