With new throwing facility, Penn track and field shoots for the 'Moon'

No one seems to know where Moon calls home

He just hangs out at the track but he’s never alone.

Spouting like a fountain he’s clearly not quiet or shy

And if you get a word in at all you just say hi to Big Moon

(Excerpt from “Moon” by Ken Deitz)

With the 120th edition of the Penn Relays underway, the meet finally has a throwing facility that matches the international prestige of the competition.

It even has a name to honor a man that helped transform the Penn track and field program: the Irving “Moon” Mondschein Throwing Complex.

Nestled in River Fields adjacent to the new field hockey complex, the throwing complex will have a javelin, shot put, discus and hammer facility that hopes to attract athletes from all over the world.

“One of the things that will help us is the illumination of the fields that will allow us to expand the schedule and include Olympic Development events and Olympic-caliber competition,” said CK Buddington, the director of the Friends of the Penn Relays.

Although the discus and hammer area opened in 2012, the facility had not yet been completed until this year. A large reason for the construction for better throwing facilities was 28-year throwing coach Tony Tenisci, who also pushed to name the complex in Moon’s honor.

“I’ve been here 28 years and waited a long time for this. To present a state-of-art facility in all of the throws,” Tenisci said.

“In my head, I’ve always wanted a facility that is comparable to Franklin Field, for the athletes that throw, who are not seen very often ... But for those who love throws, we have designed a venue that is a destination for throwers.“

Some say he was a champion athlete on the international page.

Where Track and Field was his theater; the decathlon his stage.

He had a six-year run as one of the best on the planet.

Less the two days in London where his legs turned to granite.

Moon was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., just years before the Great Depression and attended Boys High School before he entered the Army in 1943 to serve in World War II.

After he returned, he entered NYU where he competed in track and field and football. He set the university’s outdoor high jump record at 6’7.75” — a mark that still stands to this day — and even earned All-East honors as an end for the university

A three-time national AAU champion in 1944, 1946 and 1947, he competed in the 1948 Olympics as a 24-year old. From 1947 to 1949, he managed to hold a top-10 ranking in the high jump and decathlon.

He coached Israel’s first Olympic team just four years later and was even a member of the U.S. Olympic Coaching staff during the 1988 games in Seoul.

After that he turned to coaching and became the pastor

Of the Athlete’s Temple of Higher, Stronger, Faster.

Each kid was his hump, his to carve, fashion and mold.

To develop and nurture until his message was sold.

In 1965, Moon joined Penn’s coaching staff and along with Jim “Tupp” Tuppeny, he helped turn a last-placed Ivy team into an athletics powerhouse. Under the tutelage of Tupp and Moon, Penn — which up to that point had only won a single outdoor Heptagonal Championship — won nine of the 10 years from 1971 to 1980.

“He did it with such a personable and easy manner, he wasn’t authoritative, you wanted to do well for Moon," said Deitz, a three-time heptagonal champion shot putter under Moon. “He was a very easy, approachable guy with a funny sense of humor. He gave a hug to everybody, he was just one of the guys.”

During his time at Penn, Moon was known for working with athletes in weight room, on the field and even on Sundays. In short, he did all he could to bring the best out of Penn track and field.

“In my senior year of the Heptagonal Meet, I had an injury and ... I wasn’t doing well that day,” Deitz added. “In my last throw in the Ivy League, Moon whispered to me, ‘You have to win this, because the team really needs these points ... and I won by one inch.’ Everyone has a Moon story like that.”

On Saturday, Tenisci will lead a ceremony to dedicate the field to a man that has given so much to Penn track.

“He had the most remarkable connection to his athletes, and although my time with him was brief, he left a tremendous impact on me as a person and as a coach ... He was here at Penn and represented Penn,” Tenisci said. “And more than anything I wanted his name on this facility."

So please stand for a moment as I’ve finished my roast.

And I’ll cap my comments with a short two-line toast.

From the millions come the thousands, from the hundreds but a few.

But in all the world there’s only one ... Moon, this one’s for you.

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