Robert Derace Moser (February 5, 1920 – November 19, 1943) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for Texas A&M from 1939 to 1941 and was selected as a first-team All-American in 1941. He served in the military during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and was killed in the collision of two

B-17 Flying Fortresses The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

in November 1943.

Early years

Moser was born in 1920 in Erath County, Texas.

Texas A&M

He played

for the

Texas A&M Aggies football The Texas A&M Aggies football program represents Texas A&M University in the sport of American football. The Aggies compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Western Divisio ...

team from 1939 to 1941, including the 1939 national championship team. He was selected by the

Newspaper Enterprise Association The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) is an editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1902. The oldest syndicate still in operation, the NEA was originally a secondary news ...

as a first-team halfback on the

1941 College Football All-America Team The 1941 College Football All-America team is composed of college football players who were selected as All-Americans by various organizations and writers that chose College Football All-America Teams in 1941. The nine selectors recognized by the N ...

. As a senior, Moser led the

1941 Texas A&M Aggies football team The 1941 Texas A&M Aggies football team was an American football team that represented Texas A&M University as a member of the Southwest Conference during the 1941 college football season. In their eighth season under head coach Homer Norton, the ...

to the Southwest Conference championship. He ranked among the nation's leading passers, completing 67 of 166 passes for 912 yards. He also ranked among the nation's leaders with 1,250 yards of

total offense Total offense (or total offence) is a gridiron football statistic representing the total number of yards rushing and yards passing by a team or player. Total offense differs from yards from scrimmage, which gives credit for passing yardage to the ...

(912 passing and 338 rushing yards). He was also selected as the most valuable back in the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

for the 1941 season.

Military service

In May 1941, and following the United States' entry into

, Moser was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces. He received his degree from Texas A&M while being processed at

Perrin Field North Texas Regional Airport / Perrin Field is a county-owned airport in Grayson County, Texas between Sherman and Denison. Formerly Grayson County Airport, the airport was renamed in November 2007. Several buildings are occupied by businesses, ...

. By the summer of 1942, Moser had been transferred to

Chanute Field Chanute may refer to: *Chanute, Kansas, United States **Chanute High School *Octave Chanute (1832–1910), American civil engineer and aviation pioneer *Chanute Air Force Base, Illinois, United States *Octave Chanute Award, awarded by the Western S ...

in Illinois where he was appointed as the field's assistant physical training officer. In September 1942, he played for the college all-star team in a charity football game against the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

. Moser passed 35 yards to Fred Meyer for the all-stars' lone touchdown in the game. By March 1943, Moser was a flying cadet at the Brady Aviation School at Blackland Army Air Field in

Waco, Texas Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the ...

. In June 1943, while stationed at Waco, Moser was reported missing during a flight. He had made an emergency landing at Waxahachie, Texas. Moser died in November 1943 in a mid-air collision of two

east of

MacDill Field MacDill Air Force Base (MacDill AFB) is an active United States Air Force installation located 4 miles (6.4 km) south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida. The "host wing" for MacDill AFB is the 6th Air Refueling Wing (6 ARW), assig ...

in Florida. Moser was the co-pilot of one of the planes. A total of eight men died in the crash. He was the second member of the 1939 Texas A&M football team to be killed in the war. At a memorial held at Texas A&M for Moser, coach Homer Norton said: "Derace was a great boy, a great athlete, a great leader. I have always classed him as one of the best athletes I ever coached."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moser, Derace 1920 births 1943 deaths American football halfbacks Texas A&M Aggies football players Players of American football from Texas United States Army Air Forces personnel killed in World War II