By JOSH STILTS, WWU Sports Information Office

Chris Moore said he never thought a single football play would define who he is. Moore, a wide receiver and graduate of Western Washington University, made arguably the greatest football catch ever caught on film.

In 1992 against the University of Puget Sound at Baker Stadium in Tacoma, Western quarterback and 1991 Decatur High School graduate Jason Stiles threw a pass to Moore and what transpired turned into history.

The ball glanced off Moore’s shoulder pads and bounced off several parts of his body as he was tumbling. As he came upright, Moore saw the ball between his legs and instinctively snatched it before rolling out of bounds.

“I can’t explain what happened during the catch,” Moore said. “I ran an out rout, the throw was low and I went down to get it. The pass was tipped and I just did whatever I could to catch it.”

Although it was Moore who made the catch, no one, except his teammates on the sideline who physically saw the play, would know it was anything more than a completion had it not been for another Western graduate, Rick Medved.

Medved had decided at the beginning of the year to film the football team’s practices and games as part of a class project. An assistant coach had originally told Medved he couldn’t film the games or the practices but after head coach Rob Smith heard what Medved wanted to do, Medved got the go ahead.

“If Medved wasn’t where he was, when he was, Moore wouldn’t get the credit he deserves,” Stiles said. “I couldn’t see what happened because of where I was on the field, all I knew is that it was a first down and we needed to run another play.”

Now, thanks in large part to YouTube, the video has been seen by nearly 1.4 million Internet viewers plus countless others as the footage has also been shown on multiple greatest-play shows.

However, the greatest accolade for the play was 16 years in the making. During ESPN’s first ever Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly (ESPY) awards show, Moore’s catch was nominated for “Greatest College Play” by viewers who paid 40 cents for each vote by phone.

With Notre Dame’s Reggie Brooks’ amazing touchdown run against Michigan State, and Alabama’s Antonio Langham’s game-winning interception returned for a touchdown in the Southeastern Conference title game, Moore’s catch was up against huge media markets.

Joe Theismann, a Notre Dame alumnus, held the envelope with the winner inside.

“And this year’s ESPY goes to,” Theismann said, and then held a long pause. “Chris Moore’s great catch.”

Moore wasn’t invited to the awards show due in part to Western’s then being in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and its rules about gifts students can receive and funding for the first-time awards show.

Moore said he was at Bellingham’s Bellis Fair Mall with a friend buying shoes during the show. Moore was later contacted by a friend telling him he had won.

Moore was never contacted by ESPN, nor did he ever receive the award, or even a certificate.

“It was cool. I won it, but I don’t have any ill feelings (toward ESPN),” Moore said.

Sixteen years went by and Moore still hadn’t heard anything.

“I was upset,” Stiles said. “Moore is the definition of the phrase, ‘it couldn’t have happened to anyone better.’ (Moore) needed to be recognized.”

Stiles got his wish. Three weeks ago an ESPY with the name Chris Moore inscribed upon it showed up on Western’s Sports Information Director Paul Madison’s desk.

Madison had campaigned for years to get Moore his award. As luck would have it, Madison said, there was yet another Western graduate who currently works at ESPN, and he was able to set the wheels in motion.

Erik Tesauro, assignment editor for ESPN, had heard of Moore’s athletic spectacle while at Western but was reminded of it again from an e-mail in April 2007 by Madison inquiring if Tesauro had any pull in the awards department.

Tesauro sent the information to ESPY spokesperson Keri Potts. Potts took the ball and ran with it making a special order to get Moore the award as quickly as possible.

“We pride ourselves on taking as good of care as the nominees and winners as possible,” Potts said. “This was something we needed to do.”

The committee in charge of the awards told Tesauro a few months later that the problem had been solved and Moore would receive his award in just a few short weeks, and so it did when it arrived on Madison’s desk.

Plans have been tentatively made for a ceremony to award Moore his ESPY during halftime at one of the school’s upcoming home basketball games, Madison said.

Moore and Stiles still play football together although against one another in an over-30-year-old flag-football league called Church on the Ridge in Snoqualmie, Wash.

“I’ve been trying to recruit Moore for a while now, but he doesn’t become a free agent until next season,” Stiles said.

Now a husband and father of two, Moore said it’s not the catch that he let’s define who he is.

“I want to be defined by being a good parent and a good husband,” Moore said. “I don’t even think about (the catch) unless someone brings it up.”