By: Kevin Hashiro, Chaminade Sports Information Director

Everyone has big dreams and aspirations. Kevin Moore was no different.
 
Growing up in Santa Clara, California, Moore rooted for San Francisco’s two professional sports teams, the NFL’s 49ers and Major League Baseball’s Giants. And it was through his dreams that he helped to bring the 49ers to his hometown and eventually Super Bowl 50.
 
Even before achieving goals on a grand scale, Moore had his sights set for accomplishing tasks as a young adult. Enrolling at Chaminade in the mid-1980s, he wanted to make the basketball team, which was fresh off upsets of Louisville and No. 1 Virginia.
 
“After breaking my left foot my first semester and then my right foot my second semester and watched how great the basketball team was, I realized I needed to put that dream away,” Moore recalled.
 
Despite the disappointment, he moved forward and got involved in other aspects of campus life. Living in Hale Pohaku all four years, he was active in Campus Ministry and student government and was elected student body president, a goal that he actually wanted to achieve when he arrived on campus.  Moore also helped to form the NADE Squad, the student cheering section at home games.  “I am very excited to hear they brought it back this past year after 25 years. GO ’SWORDS,” he exclaimed.
  
But his involvement in athletics also brought him back into on-field competition.
 
“I ran cross country for the Silverswords for three years, starting out as one of the worst runners in our league on a very week team,” Moore said. “In my senior year after a lot of training and dedication, our team became competitive. I remember how shocked the other teams were in the league were when we placed second in a big race. The season ended on a high note when I placed in the top 10 in the league finals.
 
“Members of the Chaminade Club Soccer Team convinced me to go out for the team,” Moore continued. “We had some good players, but I was not one of them. My soccer highlight was when I accidently scored a goal that helped us into the playoffs; the only goal I ever scored,” he said.
 

 
 
But basketball was still on the back of his mind. Three years after setting his goal of making the basketball team, he finally achieved it. “The stars aligned and I made the team. My position was bench but it is still one of the proudest moments of my life,” Moore said.
  
After graduating from Chaminade in 1988 with his degree in Political Science, Moore returned home and eventually earned his Master’s degree in Catechetics from Santa Clara University. In the years that followed, he served in various positions and had many successful projects which included Trustee of the West Valley – Mission Community College District, Chair of the Santa Clara County San Tomas Aquino/Saratoga Creek Trail Commission and was Founder and President of the Santa Clara Soccer Park.
 
But his big dream was to land a major professional sports team to Santa Clara. The attempts were many. Moore helped lead the negotiations to lure MLB’s San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics but each one ended unsuccessfully. The Giants eventually built a new stadium – AT&T Park – in China Basin while the A’s remained in Oakland. He had even tried to lure Major League Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes. But now his attention was drawn to the 49ers which needed a new stadium.
 
“I wrote the initial letter to the San Francisco 49ers and helped successfully convince the team to relocate to the city of Santa Clara,” Moore said.
 
And with the completion of the new state-of-the-art facility in Levi’s Stadium, the new home of the 49ers, hosting a Super Bowl were now realistic.
 
“We knew we would get a Super Bowl when we built Levi’s Stadium,” Moore said.  We were very fortunate to be awarded Super Bowl 50. As a member of the Super Bowl 50 host committee, I was convinced our bid effort was very strong with a world-class city like San Francisco as the host city and the game being played at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
 
“We believed we had a winning hand because we were showcasing the Bay Area and Northern California as an ideal tourist destination with its beauty including the shoreline of Carmel and the wine country stretching past Napa,” he continued. “Our host committee also set an aggressive goal to raise more money for charities than any of the past Super Bowls. I am convinced that also sealed the deal.”
 
And the NFL agreed, bringing not only the biggest sporting event in North America but the 50^th anniversary of the game to Santa Clara. The stadium also hosted another major event, WWE’s Wrestlemania 31 in March 2015.
 
“On Super Bowl 50 game day, the beautiful, sunny California weather did not disappoint,” Moore said. “Watching the Blue Angels perform a flyover before the game was a proud moment I will cherish forever.”
 
Today, Moore owns a government and community relations consulting company in hometown of Santa Clara, California. He restarted his company in 2014 after retiring from city government after serving two terms as the city’s Vice Mayor and was also a member of the Santa Clara City Council. He is also an author, writing his book “Hail Mary Pass” which details his life through childhood, his college years at Chaminade and the trials and tribulations of finally bringing pro sports to his beloved home town.
 
But Moore never forgot where he came from, still following Chaminade sports online and listening to the live audio webcasts during basketball season. He also takes time to catch games whenever the Silverswords are in the Bay Area.