Can you tell me what happened? I was in undergrad school in Virginia and in those days you did not hear much about SEC basketball up there.
Not that this is not out of left field but Chapman had such a great first game and had his career so quickly diminished by bone spurs that I have always wondered how great he would have been.
Glad to. Moody was being heavily recruited by us and F$U. I think he got a lot of hometown push to attend UF and off he went. One story claimed his mom got a washer and dryer in the deal, but who knows? He played for the freshmen team, but scored 40+ against the varsity in a preseason game. He was thought to be the next big thing in college hoops by many and maybe the best that UF had seen. Problems started second semester. He wasn't the greatest student, but I believe there were also class attendance problems and just like that he was ineligible. Wound up transferring to a school out in Louisiana, Dillard maybe, and had one of his eyes put out in an off-campus incident (night club). The story continued that he got his academic act together and the early plan was to try and get back to UF, but the missing eye was a liability and he wound up staying in Louisiana.
Despite the eye, he was still better than most players of his day, but his outside shot wasn't as accurate as it once was (depth perception issue). I think he got a try-out with a pro team (Pistons I think), but the eye kept him from making it on their roster. He came back to Gadsden county and played for a long time with a semi-pro bunch called Rackley's Raiders that featured a bunch ex-college guys (Greg Grady and Ron King from FSU, John Billips from MissSt, Nathan Hayes and Monk Davis from Stillman to name a few). They were good and beat just about everybody they played, from teams made up of collegians to armed forces, etc. Everybody still loved to watch Moody. He could still run and jump and was good for a couple of highlight reel dunks, rebounds, and blocked shots each game. The last time I saw him play, he was in his 40's and was still killing the younger guys. His lower body looked like a thoroughbred race horse.
One of the best things about him was he was a nice guy to everybody he met. As good as he was (the man on three consecutive state championship teams), he wasn't arrogant at all. Really wish it all would have panned out for him at UF. He'd be right up there on that "best five" list I believe. He was 6'3" and could get his hand up to the top of the glass. Very other-worldly back in the early '70's.