The Summer Before Everything Changed
The summer of 1969 was not spent sitting around waiting for college football to begin.
I was working harvest.
For six weeks, Roger Hill and I lived in a converted brooder house at the home place. It had once been used for newborn chickens, but by then it had become a small bunkhouse. Roger was around my age and worked on the ranch during the spring and summer.
The workdays during harvest could run about fifteen hours. There was nothing comfortable about operating a combine in those days. There were no air-conditioned cabs. The operator sat or stood directly above the header while the machine moved through the fields, taking in grain and straw.
Dust covered everything.
The heat came from the summer sun and the machinery running only a few feet away. By the end of the day, you were dirty, sweaty and tired, and the itch from all that dust seemed to stay with you long after the evening shower.
That was my summer before college.
It was also the summer I was preparing myself to play football.
The Workday Wasn’t Quite Over
My football training didn’t end when the harvest crew finished for the day.
I would get up about an hour before everyone else, put on my sweats and sneakers, and run the country roads in the dark.
Then I would spend the day working in the fields.
After supper, usually around 10:30 at night, I would head into the dimly lit barn and lift weights. The equipment had been borrowed from Edwall Grade School.
Looking back, the routine seems almost impossible to fit into a single day.
But at the time, it was simply what I was doing.
I knew college football was ahead of me. I had already been recruited by several schools, and I understood that the opportunity to play major college football would require more than simply showing up when practice started.
The barn became part of that preparation.
So did the country roads.
And so did the harvest fields.
By the time the last field was finished around the first week of September, I was still in good shape and had earned almost $600. I was paid $20 a day, which came out to roughly $1.25 an hour.
At the time, I didn’t think much about the hourly rate.
Having nearly $600 to take with me to college felt pretty good.
There Was No Separation Between Work and Football
Today, it is easy to think of preparation as something that happens in a weight room, on a practice field or inside a training facility.
My preparation didn’t look like that.
Part of it happened in a barn.
Part of it happened on country roads before sunrise.
And a large part of it happened while working long days during harvest.
That is one reason this period has stayed with me.
I wasn’t trying to turn the summer into some grand life experience. I was simply getting through the work and getting ready for what came next.
The two things happened at the same time.
There was also something else happening that summer that had nothing to do with football.
I was leaving behind a part of my life.
Liz Sheldon had been a loyal and supportive companion. She understood my ambition and wanted me to succeed. But I was entering a different stage of my life, and I believed that trying to maintain a relationship from 300 miles away would interfere with my focus on becoming the best college football player I could be.
So I drove to her house one afternoon to say goodbye.
She met me at the door holding a cardboard box.
After we said goodbye, I drove home and opened it.
On top was a stuffed moose I had given her for Christmas.
It was a small thing, but I remember it.
That summer wasn’t just about leaving the ranch for college. It was about leaving behind pieces of the life I had known.
From the Wheat Fields to the Football Field
The title Crab Creek Chronicles: From the Wheat Fields to the Ball Fields and Beyond captures something important about my story.
The two worlds were never completely separate.
The ranch was where I grew up. It was where I learned what a long workday looked like. It was where I spent time with my family, worked around livestock and equipment, and watched the seasons change.
Football was the road I eventually chose.
But when I left for college, I didn’t leave the first world behind.
I took it with me.
The habits formed during those long days became part of who I was. The early mornings, the physical work, the expectation that you finished what you started, and the understanding that nobody was going to do the work for you were all already there.
The football career came later.
The foundation was already being built.
That is one of the reasons I wanted these stories in Crab Creek Chronicles. The book isn’t only about the years I spent in college athletics or the positions I eventually held. It is about the years before all of that, too.
A reader can look at a long career and see the stadiums, the teams, the wins, the losses and the titles.
I remember the barn.
I remember the dust.
I remember running country roads before daylight.
I remember being tired after a fifteen-hour harvest day and still knowing I had weights to lift.
Those details don’t show up on a résumé, but they are part of the story.
What I Remember About That Summer
I don’t remember the summer as one long exercise in discipline.
I remember it as life.
There was work to do, football ahead of me, money to earn and a new chapter waiting at the end of the summer.
There were also goodbyes.
That combination makes the memory different from simply remembering a football season.
I was still a kid from eastern Washington, but I was about to become a college football player.
I didn’t know then where the road would eventually lead.
I only knew that September was coming.
And when it did, I would leave the wheat fields for the football field.
That transition is one of the stories behind Crab Creek Chronicles. The journey from the ranch to college football didn’t happen in one dramatic moment. It happened through dozens of ordinary days, including one long summer when harvest work and football preparation became part of the same routine.
Those are the days I still remember.
Key Takeaway
The road to Bill Moos’s college football career began well before he stepped onto a college campus. The summer of 1969 brought together ranch work, football preparation, long days, early mornings and a difficult goodbye, making it an important bridge between childhood and the next chapter of his life.
FAQs
What did Bill Moos do before playing college football?
Before college football, Bill Moos grew up working around his family’s farm and ranch in eastern Washington. In the summer of 1969, he worked long harvest days while also running and lifting weights to prepare for college football.
How did Bill Moos prepare for college football?
During the 1969 harvest, Bill ran country roads before the workday began and lifted weights in a barn after dinner. His football preparation took place alongside his regular ranch responsibilities.
Where did Bill Moos grow up?
Bill Moos grew up around Edwall, Washington, in an agricultural setting that became an important part of the story told in Crab Creek Chronicles. The book connects his early life in eastern Washington with his later career in college athletics.
Is this story included in Crab Creek Chronicles?
Yes. The summer harvest and the transition toward college football are part of the memoir’s broader account of Bill Moos’s early life and development.
What is Crab Creek Chronicles about?
Crab Creek Chronicles is Bill Moos’s memoir, tracing his journey from his childhood and family roots in eastern Washington through his football career and decades in college athletics. The book was published in 2026.
Read the Full Story
Crab Creek Chronicles: From the Wheat Fields to the Ball Fields and Beyond brings together the people, places and experiences that shaped Bill Moos’s life, from the ranch near Edwall to the world of college football and athletic administration.
Explore the memoir and discover more of Bill Moos’s story.