Bob Mooneyhan

My hero hasn’t done anything big like saved a life or anything like that. But one thing he was really good at was making someone laugh, he could make anyone laugh. My hero is my Uncle Bob Mooneyhan. He is no longer here with us today, but he will always have a place in anyone’s heart who has ever known him.

Airport High School dedicated its sports complex to honor the memory of Bob Mooneyhan during the halftime of the Brooklyn-Cayce game on August 29. Me hero was Airport’s first head football coach and athletics director. He was involved in establishing the school’s athletic program in the 1960s. “The history of athletics at Airport High School starts with Bob Mooneyhan,” said Butch Chavis, a former football player. “He started this entire program with just $200.” I think that anyone who can start a sports program with only $200 can do anything that they believe in. My uncle has done so much for the community, friends, family, me, the list just goes on and on. He also worked at Mooneyhan’s Auto Service, helping his son there almost every day even after he retired. He always did more than what people asked of him and helped anyone who needed it, even if he didn’t know them well. My hero also taught driver’s education. “There are a lot of people around here who remind me they learned how to drive in his class,” said Bill Mooneyhan, his son and partner in the auto repair business.

My hero lived in Cayce and West Columbia for most of his life. He attended BC (Brooklyn-Cayce) High School and Clemson University College. He helped a lot around Cayce and West Columbia, and would attend every ceremony or anything that had to do with his grandchildren and family. He was a very likeable person. Once you got to know him you knew that you would want to keeping touch with him. What I remember most though, was his laugh and his wonderful sense of humor.

My hero was born on April 21, 1933. He did so much in the 69 years that he had. “He could make things a reality that you wouldn’t think could become a reality,” said Sen. Jake Knotts, R-Lexington, who played football for my uncle. My hero also organized cookouts and ribbon sales to help fund his teams. My uncle used the funds to build the athletic program that grew to 19 sports in the 1970s, including gymnastics and ROTC rifle teams, which were rare in South Carolina. “It wasn’t the winning and losing that he taught them so much as it was character,” said Anne Mooneyhan, my aunt and the widow of Bob Mooneyhan. “He taught them about football, but the report card was the most important thing.” He kept touching lives, for example that of former Airport High School football player Dewayne Caulder, who had a liver transplant. While Caulder was out of work, Mooneyhan had helped Caulder’s family financially. He even bought Caulder a car.

My hero is important to me for so many reasons. I look back and laugh on how some Saturday mornings my grandma (my uncle’s sister-in-law) would take me to breakfast to see everyone, including Uncle Bob. Well, she was a USC fan, while he was a Tigers fan so he would always have something funny to say about the Gamecocks and their winning—well losing season. Even though it was a little harsh sometimes, he always found someway to make her smile and laugh about it. It was like…whenever he walked into a room; his face would just shine and light up the whole room. No one could ever explain how much I and everyone else miss him. His passing left a whole in Cayce and West Columbia…and also in my heart.