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Pro Football Hall of Fame member Warren Moon has a marketing company in Irvine and a charitable foundation that espouses the importance of a good education.
Pro Football Hall of Fame member Warren Moon has a marketing company in Irvine and a charitable foundation that espouses the importance of a good education.

After passing for a combined 73,830 yards in college and as a professional, former quarterback Warren Moon now passes on something less taxing on his right arm and shoulder: Advice.

Moon’s primary targets are youths and families in need, particularly when it comes to college scholarships. He established the Crescent Moon Foundation in 1989 with that as a main goal, and six years ago he became founder and president of Sports 1 Marketing in Irvine to gain an additional avenue for raising funds and awareness for charitable causes, both his and others. 

Moon, who is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and was MVP of the 1978 Rose Bowl while playing for Washington, knows that name recognition helps when it comes to charity. But he isn’t in it for the glory.

“One of the reasons I do it is because I’m in the position where I can do it,” Moon said of his fund-raising efforts. “Mainly, though, I think it’s the right thing to do in my heart as far as being able to help people. I enjoy it. You see the rewards come from what you’re able to do for other people and how it affects them, how it benefits them, how it changes their lives. The more you see that happening, the more you want to do it.”

Though not an avid golfer, Moon sees the sport as fertile ground for business networking and charitable events. In June, Sports 1 Marketing partnered with the Irvine Public School Foundation for a golf event at Strawberry Farms that raised more than $125,000 for the school system and Crescent Moon Foundation. Another golf tournament is set for November in Las Vegas, and Moon says events such as bowling tournaments and fashion shows are other popular ways to get people together to support worthy causes.

“We’re getting our name out there and starting to get the credibility and respect you need in the business world that we’re for real and growing,” Moon said of Sports 1 Marketing, which started with three employees and now has 16 in addition to a stout summer internship program. “We see the future being even brighter.”

As a football star at Hamilton High in L.A. in the early 1970s and later at Washington with the Huskies, Moon’s professional future appeared bright as well. But his expectations of playing in the NFL were delayed – not because of skill level but because of attitudes that black players were better suited for positions other than quarterback. So he went to the CFL for six seasons and helped guide the Edmonton Eskimos to five consecutive Grey Cup victories.

“If you look at my career and journey and what I had to go through to play quarterback at a time when racially it wasn’t the most acceptable thing, I feel that’s a good message to get out to people about persevering and dealing with adversity in your life,” Moon said. “It’s going to happen to everybody somewhere and at sometime, but it’s how you deal with it and persevere that’s what really counts. I had dreams of playing in the NFL as a young kid and I didn’t take the most customary trail to get there, but I made it, and that’s the bottom line.”

Since bottom lines vary and aspirations often require a helping hand, Moon always circles back to his main message of education as a solid foundation.

“I feel like everybody can’t be a professional athlete, everybody can’t be a singer, everybody can’t be an actor, but I think everybody has the ability to learn if given that opportunity,” he said. “And if you’re given that opportunity and take advantage of it, you have a chance to compete and be successful in this world. That’s why education has been so important to me. That’s why if I can help, I will.”