Moore was a multi-sport athlete. In addition to playing in the Negro leagues, he was an all-city basketball player at Schenley High School in Pittsburgh.[4][5] He was also selected three times as an all-scholastic center.[6][7] When he was selected unanimously for the third consecutive year as the best scholastic center in Pittsburgh, The Pittsburgh Courier wrote:
"Considering his youth, his natural athletic abilities and his quick susceptibility to teaching, Johnny undoubtedly will reach the peaks in basketball achievements. A perfect gentleman wherever you meet him, bashful John is an excellent example of the ideal man of tomorrow. If there were only more young athletes with a similar deportment, what a world, what a world this would be."[8]
Moore also played professional basketball for the Loendi Big Five, one of the early black basketball teams known as the Black Fives. He also was a member of the Homestead Grays basketball team in 1927, led by Cumberland Posey, the organizer of the baseball team of the same name,[9] and the Holy Cross Parishioners.[10] Moore won a reputation as "a real offensive threat at all times" who "garnered a large number of baskets."[11] In 1930, he played basketball with the Bailey Bige Five with fellow Negro leaguers Vic Harris and Claude Johnson.[12]
From at least 1934 to 1936, Moore played basketball with the Iron City Elks along with fellow Negro leaguer Joe Ware and future photographer Teenie Harris.[13][14][15]
Moore was described by The Pittsburgh Courier in 1936 as "one of the best 'stretch-runners' who ever swept down the hardwoods . . . the left-handed hook artist, who is a clever all-around floorman and one of the finest ponies bred on Smoketown's hills in many moons."[16]
He also played at the quarterback position for the Pittsburgh Crawford's football counterparts, the Garfield Eagles.[4] He also played quarterback in 1931 for the East Liberty Scholastics, described at the time as "Pittsburgh's outstanding grid eleven."[17]
