Whenever it becomes safe for fans to return in full-throated force at college basketball games, there will be an empty seat at Westmont College’s Murchison Gym. It was occupied for decades by Pat Moore, the fiercest supporter of the Westmont Warriors. She usually stationed herself behind the home team’s bench, but she also was known to join the rowdy crowd in the student section.
“It was crazy to see this 75-year-old screaming and yelling with the students,” said Dave Loveton, who was covering Westmont sports for the News-Press and wrote a Page 1 article in 2003 that dubbed her “Passionate Pat.”
Those public displays only hinted at the passion for life that burned deeply in Pat Moore. It flickered out on December 27, when she died at 92 after a month in Santa Barbara’s Serenity House.