A native of Francisco, North Carolina, Moir attended Appalachian State University where he was a star in basketball and baseball. He spent three years in the Cincinnati Reds’ organization before medical problems ended his professional career. Moir then turned to coaching and it did not take long for the victories to mount. Coaching at high schools in Stuart, Virginia and North Carolina, he posted an 11-year record of 224 wins and only 42 losses. Four times he coached high school teams to state championships.
Winning was the name of Moir’s game and he did it with regularity throughout his 19-year old career as a head college coach. His overall head coaching record was 616 wins and 238 losses, which include 392 wins and 196 losses at the collegiate level. He built a tremendous reputation as a coach at Roanoke College, Tulane University, and Virginia Tech. His Roanoke teams swept 133 games and lost just 44 in a six-year period. While at Roanoke, in 1972, his team captured the NCAA College Division Championship and both The Associated Press and The National Association of Basketball Coaches named him as National College Division Coach of the Year. Moir coached at Tulane University for three years and obtained a record of 46-33 before returning to Virginia.
Moir began coaching at Virginia Tech in 1976 and in his 11 years he led four teams to the NCAA playoffs and four to the NIT while only having one losing season. His 1979 team won the Metro Conference championship with a 22-9 mark. Moir guided the 1982-83 team, one of the youngest in school history, to 23 wins, the most ever recorded by a Hokie club. In 1983-84, Moir’s team went 22-13 and advanced to the semifinals of the NIT before bowing to eventual champion Michigan. Virginia Tech then posted records of 20-9 and 22-9 the next two years and went to two consecutive NCAA Tournaments.
During Moir’s coaching tenure at Tech his teams consistently ranked among the Top 25 teams in the nation and defeated top 10 teams like Louisville, Memphis State, NC State, Wake Forest and Virginia when they were ranked in the Top 10 in the nation. Attendance for Tech basketball was at its best. Four of the five highest season attendance totals were under Moir. In 1984 and 1985, the Cassell hosted more than 8,500 fans per game, capacity is 10,000.