Billie Moorethe coach of the first Olympic women’s basketball team in USA who won the silver medal in the Montreal 1976 Olympic GamesHe has passed away at the age of 79.
The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), of which Moore was a coach between 1977 and 1993, announced Thursday that she had died of cancer at her home in fullerton (California), surrounded by family and friends.
Moore was the first coach in women’s basketball history to lead teams from two different schools to win national championships. Moore guided Cal State Fullerton to the Women’s Intercollegiate Athletics Commission title in 1970 and UCLA to the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) title in 1978.
Moore was included in the Hall of Fame of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.
She began her coaching career as an assistant at Southern Illinois. Moore spent eight seasons in Cal State Fullertonwhere he posted 140-15 wins. Moore he led UCLA to a 27-3 mark in 1978 and posted a record 296 wins in his 16 years with the Bruins. She led the women’s Olympic team USA in the Games of Montréal nearly half a century ago. His team included pioneers of the game-Pat SummittAnn Meyers Drysdale and Nancy liebermanwho went 3-2 and finished runner-up to the powerhouse team of the Soviet Union (5-0).
USA Basketball said in a statement that it was “proud to have been a part of (Moore’s) journey. Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this difficult time.” The current United States Olympic selector, Dawn Staleyof South Carolina, said on social media that women’s basketball “lost a legend today in Billie Moore… thank you coach for serving our game with class, dignity and purpose.”
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Billie Moore, the first US Olympic selector, dies