Having finished his master’s and begun work toward a doctorate at Seton Hall in his early 30s, John Moon felt he needed some time off from his studies.
"So I said, ‘Let me inquire about the coaching job here at Seton Hall—maybe I’ll do it for two years, then I’ll go back to be a principal and all that.’”
“And those two years turned into 53,” said Moon, who is now considered one of the most respected and successful track coaches in the nation.
Coach Moon has spent the last 53 years coaching track and field and cross country at Seton Hall, including the last 15 exclusively as head coach of cross country. Throughout his career, he helped elevate the track program from perennial success to national prominence.
He also coached legendary Seton Hall athletes, like Andrew Vermon, Flirtisha Harris, and Noelle Graham, who have won Big East Championships, NCAA Championships, and Olympic gold medals. A legend in his own right, Moon is retiring after this track and field season, leaving behind a legacy of achievement and unmatched success.
A native of Union County, Moon’s story begins roughly 15 miles south of Seton Hall, in Linden, New Jersey.
“I was in the fourth grade when I lived in Roselle, and my mother bought a home in Linden,” Moon said. “When I moved to Linden, my parents didn’t really want me to hang out with the kids in the neighborhood, so they had me enrolled in music—I took piano lessons.”
But after “[him] and the piano didn’t quite get along,” Moon turned to sports.
“My first inkling with sports is that I wanted to be accepted by the kids in the neighborhood,” Moon said. “And I’ll never forget in the sixth grade, when all the kids in the neighborhood wanted to [try out] for the football team.
Because Moon had never played sports before, he was "petrified" when they asked him to play.
“But I wanted to be accepted,” he added. “And in the seventh grade, I [tried out]. There were 10 of us, and the coach cut everyone—except me, and the only reason he kept me was because he needed a water-boy.”
“That was my introduction to an organized sport,” he said. “I hated it, but I was being accepted by my peers.”
And the rest is history: from there, Moon became one of the top freshman football players in the country and continued to play throughout high school. He later transitioned to track and field, where he emerged as one of the nation's top high school athletes in the sport. He was an All-State and All-American sprinter, and he won the Union County Championship four years in a row. After high school, Moon enrolled at Tennessee State University (TSU) on an athletic scholarship, where he experienced what he described as a “culture shock.”
“Just the idea of going south was a culture shock,” he said. “It was my first time being in a ‘Black situation'—having Black professors, classmates—but it was fantastic, and I needed that.”
At TSU, Moon emphasized how witnessing other student-athletes take their sport seriously motivated him to do the same, although it was a challenge at first. “I was playing sports as a hobby,” he said. “I didn’t even really like sports, and I didn’t put a whole lot into it.”
Despite not training much for it, he recalled competing at the Union County Championships in high school and feeling like no one came close to him. “I was the Union County champion for four years with nobody near me,” he said. “I was just having fun.”
The feeling of ease quickly faded, and Moon moved on to the next stage of his athletic journey.
“[But] when I went to college, everybody was serious,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. The whole mental thing changed, and, as a matter of fact, I only lasted a year before coming home because I quit. I called my mom and said, ‘Mom, these coaches and people out here are crazy.’ It was just so different.”
Despite this initial setback, Moon said he returned to the university inspired by his fellow student-athletes to commit himself to his sport fully.
“It’s like anything,” he said. “With any job or career you’re going into, you have to really get into it.” That’s exactly what he did—Moon finished his collegiate career with All-American honors and was one of the top sprinters in the school’s history. In 1988, he was inducted into Tennessee State University’s Athletics Hall of Fame, marking the first of four hall of fame inductions he would receive throughout his career.
After college, Moon started his coaching career years later at the Kilmer Job Center in Piscataway. From there, he moved to Rahway High School, where he won 33 state championships and helped transform the program into a national powerhouse. Following his success with Rahway, Moon said he decided to give coaching at the next level a try. In 1972, he was named the head coach of Seton Hall’s track and field and cross country programs.
Although he originally planned on coaching briefly, Moon is now in his 53rd year with the program. “It’s just my desire,” he said, reflecting on what has sustained his passion and dedication to coaching for over 50 years. “I want to be good. If you’re going to do something, don’t do it half-assed. And that’s been my philosophy all this time—if you’re going to do it, go through with it.” This philosophy and mindset have helped him become one of the most successful coaches in college athletics, regardless of sport.
But this didn’t come without its fair share of challenges. Moon noted that the most challenging part of coaching has been dealing with athletes whose “mental and physical attitude is completely different.”
“The most challenging part is developing an athlete that you know is physically good, but mentally [their] mind is ‘in left field,’” Moon said. “My thing is, I’m trying to get the mental and the physical on the same level, and that’s not easy.”
Moon encourages his athletes by sharing his own experiences and recalling his early struggles at TSU before he fully committed himself to his sport.
“I use myself as an example,” he said. “My physical and mental were opposite, and once I put those on the same parallel, then things started happening.”
With this in mind, Moon also emphasized how being a successful coach requires more than just coaching.
“To be a successful coach, you have to be a coach, a psychologist, a mom, a dad,” he said. “You have to be all those things at different times because these athletes are individuals—they have personalities, and they have problems.”
Speaking about his athletes, Moon reflected on the many talented athletes he has had the privilege of coaching, admitting that it’s difficult to place any one above the rest. “Every time I talk to one of my former athletes, they ask, ‘coach, who’s your best athlete?’” he shared, “But I have so many of them, and I ask myself, ‘do I say the athletes who have won in the Big East, or the athletes who have won in the NCAA?’”
“It really depends,” he said. “But I’m lucky that I’ve had so many good athletes.”
Refusing to take credit for himself, he emphasized that he owes all of his success to his athletes while critiquing coaches who fail to acknowledge this. “A lot of coaches want to bullshit,” he said. “But to be a successful coach, you're only as successful as the ‘horses’ you have. You cannot be a good coach if you’ve never had a good athlete. Some of these coaches receive all these awards, but those awards are there because of the athletes. A lot of coaches don’t want to give credit to their athletes, but you do. You have to give it to them.”
“My athletes made me here at Seton Hall,” he added. “They’re the ones. They have made me here. To be in four hall of fames is only because of my athletes.”
Having coached for over five decades, Moon has witnessed the sport and the sports landscape itself evolve. He discussed this at length, with a particular focus on the impact of more lenient transfer rules, NIL, and how these changes have even trickled down to high school athletics. “First of all, the whole sports [landscape] has changed,” he said. “It has changed from high school to college. You had to attend and compete in the schools in your neighborhood. Then, over the years, that culture has changed, whereas now you have people moving to different high schools, for the case of play.”
“On the collegiate level, it’s the same,” he added. “When I first started, if you were to transfer, you had to sit out a year, and you could not compete. But NIL changed the whole outlook of sports—now you will have professional kids in the collegiate program. And some of these kids will make more money in college than they’d make in the pros.”
“In the years to come, I think there’s going to be some changes because the transfer portal has gotten out of hand,” he said. “I think it needs to be looked at. I’m not against kids getting money in some kind of way, but education [should be] the first thing.”
Moon also mentioned how these changes have affected the integrity of college sports overall, with players pursuing profit over education and athletic success. “Now, there’s no allegiance to the school, no allegiance to the coach,” he said. “There’s only allegiance to the green stuff.”
Of the many achievements in his career, one holds a special place in Moon’s memory: serving as assistant coach for the United States Men’s Track team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Moon reflected on the experience and shared how surreal it was. “When I walked into the stadium in Sydney and we all had our red, white, and blue stuff on, and a hundred thousand people were in the stands,” he said.” They told us, ‘Don’t be waving at the camera, don’t be doing this or that.’ But I remember when we walked out and the cameras were right there, I had to say, ‘Hey, Ma.’”
“That feeling will put a knot in your throat,” he added. “It’s hard to explain and something you have to feel.”
He also discussed his induction into the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Association Hall of Fame in 2021, expressing that he had no idea he would achieve such an honor. “Prior to that, there were a lot of smaller halls of fame I was inducted into, but I never thought that someday I’d be in the big one,” he said. “It’s hard to explain and to put into words, but it’s something that you accomplish that very few other people have. And you feel really good, mainly because all of your peers recognize you—that’s what’s so important. These are guys in the field themselves, and coming from that, that’s like ‘utopia.’”
Reflecting on the moment, Moon said that “accepting the award was just a dream come true.”
On the rare occasions when he’s not coaching, Moon said he enjoys tending to his plants and koi fish at home.
“I like plants, strawberries, and fish,” he said. “I have two 55-gallon tanks in my house filled with koi fish. I also have a pond in my backyard, and I have koi fish in that pond as well, and I even have a heater in there for the wintertime.”
A devoted protector of his fish and plants, he mentioned that he plans to install wires to protect his hobby from unwanted visitors. “We have one of those cranes in the neighborhood,” he said. “And he’s kicking my ass.”
Looking ahead to retirement, Moon said he doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon. “I’m constantly looking for things to do and to expand on,” he said. “I may get into politics, maybe do some traveling. I’m not going to just sit around and not do anything—I’m going to enjoy life.”
He mentioned that he wants to visit Sydney again, along with New Zealand and Auckland. His love for Greek mythology has also inspired him to return to Greece, particularly to Athens. “I want to go back to Athens to see the Pantheon and the Temple of Zeus again,” he said.
Although he will be retired by this time next year, Moon added that he plans to stay involved with the sport in some capacity. “Right now, I’m on a lot of executive committees for USA Track and Field,” he said. “And I’ll probably stay on the committee [for a while]. We have the Olympics coming up, which is in California,” he added. “So, I’ll be busy.”
On March 4, Moon was honored at halftime during the university’s basketball game against Creighton at the Prudential Center.
“Being recognized at the basketball game was an honor,” he said. “Tears came to my eyes. Anytime that you’re recognized by your peers, the university, and so on, it’s an honor.”
He also shared that even being recognized in public brings him immense joy and pride in what he’s achieved.
“It’s like when I go places now and people say, ‘That’s Coach Moon,’ you feel like you have earned that,” he said. “It’s like a shield of honor.”
Zachary Mawby is the head editor for The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at zachary.mawby@student.shu.edu.
