Billie Moore, who was the first US women’s Olympic basketball coach and led the team to silver in the 1976 Montreal Olympic games, has died at age 79
- Moore died of cancer at his home Wednesday in Fullerton, California
- She is the first coach in women’s basketball history to lead multiple teams to national championships
- He guided Cal State Fullerton and UCLA to AIAW titles, respectively in 1970, 1978
- In 1976, the US women’s basketball team fell to the Soviet Union team in the final
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Billie Moore, who coached the first US Olympic women’s basketball team to a silver medal at the 1976 Montreal Games, has died at age 79.
UCLA, where Moore was the women’s head coach from 1977-93, announced Thursday that she died of cancer at home Wednesday night in Fullerton, California, surrounded by family and friends.
Moore is the first coach in women’s basketball history to lead teams from two different schools to national championships. She guided Cal State Fullerton to the Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women title in 1970 and UCLA to the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) title in 1978.
Billie Moore, who coached the first US Olympic women’s basketball team to a silver medal at the Montreal Games in 1976, died of cancer at age 79 on Wednesday. She guided Cal State Fullerton and UCLA to Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women titles in the 1970s
The 1999 Basketball Hall of Fame inductees pose together following a news conference in Springfield, Massachusetts on October 1, 1999. (LR): Wayne Embry, Kevin McHale, Billie Moore, John Thompson and Carl Bennett, receiving of the award for Fred Zollner
Moore was inducted into both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.
He began his career as an assistant at Southern Illinois. Moore then spent eight seasons at Cal State Fullerton, where he went 140-15.
Moore led UCLA to a 27-3 mark in 1978 and posted a record 296 victories in his 16 years with the Bruins. In his 24-year career, he finished with a 436-196 record.
At the collegiate level, Moore’s overall record was 436–196. He also won gold in the 1975 Pan American games in Mexico City
Moore guided the US women’s Olympic team to the Montreal Games almost half a century ago. His team featured the trailblazers of the game – Pat Summitt, Ann Meyers Drysdale and Nancy Lieberman, who went 3-2 and finished runner up to the powerhouse Soviet Union team (5-0).
USA Basketball said in a statement that it is ‘proud to be a part of [Moore’s] travel Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this difficult time.’
The current US Olympic coach, Dawn Staley of 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.’
Staley’s team captured its seventh straight women’s gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Games.
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