Sioux City lost one of its brightest personalities on May 23, 2026, when Cory Michael “Moose” Mozak passed away at the age of 41.
To those who knew him, the news carried the particular weight that comes with losing someone who seemed too alive, too loud, too full of laughter to ever really be gone.
Born on September 28, 1984, to Jeanne (Hansen) and Tim Mozak, Cory grew up in Sioux City with hockey in his blood and a personality that announced itself the moment he walked into a room.
He attended East High School before heading to Helena, Montana, to play junior hockey, and later enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where he continued playing the sport he loved.
Hockey was never just a game for Cory. It was a language he spoke fluently, a community he belonged to, and eventually, a gift he passed on to others.
After returning to Sioux City, he channeled that same energy into coaching with Siouxland Youth Hockey and the Sioux City Metros, working alongside his brothers to shape younger players the way the game had once shaped him.
Those who watched him on the ice as a coach saw the same fire that had carried him through his playing years, only now directed outward, toward kids who needed someone to believe in them.
In August of 2013, Cory married Nicole McSweeney, and together they built a family that became the center of his universe. Their three children, Kennedey, Kerrigan, and Collin, were, by his own account, his greatest accomplishment in life.
Everything else, the accolades, the friendships, the career, came second to being their father. Nicole captured this beautifully when she asked for prayers for their children as they navigate the loss of a man who, even in his most infuriating moments, could always make her laugh.
Professionally, Cory worked at Mozak’s Furniture and Flooring, the family business, before joining Shaw Industries, a move that eventually brought the family to St. Louis.
Wherever he went, he carried Sioux City with him, along with that unmistakable Mozak warmth that made strangers feel like old friends within minutes.
People who crossed paths with Cory tend to reach for the same words when describing him. Charming. Magnetic. Hilarious. He was the kind of person who did not just attend a gathering but transformed it simply by showing up.
His larger-than-life personality was not performance. It was just Cory, genuinely and completely himself, someone who found joy easily and shared it even more easily.
He leaves behind his children, Kennedey, Kerrigan, and Collin; his mother, Jeanne; his father, Tim; his brothers, Brant and Trent; his stepmother, Tracey; stepbrothers Keaton and Hunter Rowe; and a wide circle of family and friends whose lives are measurably richer for having known him.
His family has asked that people remember him not through grief but through the laughter and love that defined who he truly was.
In keeping with a life devoted to the game that shaped him, donations in his memory may be made to the Siouxland Youth Hockey fund at siouxcityhockey.com/donate. It is a fitting tribute to a man who gave so much of himself to the next generation.
Rest easy, Moose.
