Gary Moeller Obituary

Gary Oscar Moeller was an American football coach best known as the head coach at the University of Michigan from 1990 to 1994. During his five seasons at Michigan, he won 44 games, lost 13 and tied 3 for a winning percentage of .758.

Gary Moeller is the father of former Cleveland Browns offensive line coach Andy Moeller.

Gary Moeller died on Monday morning (July 11), aged 81.

Moeller began his coaching career at the high school level, including Bellefontaine High School in Ohio as head coach and coaching defensive linemen for several years until joining Bo Schembechler at Miami University in 1967.

Moeller moved with Schembechler to Michigan in 1969, where he served as defensive ends coach until 1973, when he was promoted to defensive coordinator.

Moeller was head coach of the University of Illinois from 1977 to 1979.

Moeller spent 23 years associated with the Michigan football program and was one of 11 coaches in the school’s history to work with the program for more than 20 years, and one of five among those 11 individuals that served as head coach of the Wolverines (1990-94).

Moeller guided the Wolverines to four bowl game victories and boasts of a 44-13-3 overall record in his five years as head coach, including a win over Washington in the 1993 Rose Bowl.

After Michigan, Moeller was hired in June 1995 by the Cincinnati Bengals as tight ends coach under head coach David Shula and spent two seasons there.

In 1997, he joined the Detroit Lions as the assistant head coach and linebackers coach under new head coach Bobby Ross.

In 2000, Moeller was named head coach following Ross’s sudden resignation nine games into the season and was given a contract for the remainder of the season and two additional years by owner William Clay Ford, Sr., a move that seemingly guaranteed a future with the team.

After the team narrowly missed the playoffs (losing their final game on a last-second 54-yard field goal), ownership endorsed Moeller as the Lions head coach for the foreseeable future.

Moeller was eventually fired by new team president Matt Millen in early 2001 and replaced by Marty Mornhinweg.

Moeller finished with a 4–3 record as head coach, making him the only Lions head coach since Joe Schmidt to post a winning record during his tenure (Moeller has since been joined by Jim Caldwell in this regard).

In 2001, Moeller joined the Jacksonville Jaguars as defensive coordinator under head coach Tom Coughlin but voluntarily stepped down from that position after one season, signing a three-year contract with the Chicago Bears as linebackers coach under head coach Dick Jauron.

Moeller served in that role for two seasons, leaving when Jauron was fired after the 2003 season.

Moeller did not coach again after that.