Act Daily News
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Billie Moore – the pinnacle coach of the primary US ladies’s Olympic basketball workforce, the primary head coach to steer two faculties to nationwide championships in ladies’s basketball and a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame – died Wednesday on the age of 79.
Her loss of life was introduced by UCLA, the place she led the Bruins to an Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women nationwide championship in 1978 and the Naismith Hall of Fame, on Thursday.
The UCLA athletics division mentioned Moore had been battling a number of myeloma, a most cancers of plasma cells that suppresses the physique’s immune response, and he or she died at her house in Fullerton, California, surrounded by household and buddies.
“Billie Moore was a trailblazer as a head coach and among a very small group of individuals that laid the foundation for where women’s basketball is today,” Naismith Hall of Fame president and CEO John L. Doleva mentioned. “Her impact on the basketball community knows no boundaries, and she will be missed by the entire Hall of Fame family.”
Moore, who coached UCLA from 1977 to 1993, holds the document for many wins (296) by a ladies’s head basketball coach in program historical past.
Before teaching UCLA, Moore was the pinnacle coach for the primary US ladies’s Olympic basketball workforce in 1976. With gamers comparable to Pat Summitt, Ann Meyers Drysdale, Lusia Harris and Nancy Lieberman, Moore led Team USA to the silver medal on the Summer Games in Montreal.
Moore, who was born in Westmoreland, Kansas, additionally led Cal State Fullerton to a nationwide title in 1970. She was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame and Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.
“One of the things that, when I received the call, that was foremost in my mind was that I’m being inducted as coach in a team sport,” she mentioned at her enshrinement. “And when you are in a team sport, you’re not here because of something you did yourself. It is obvious that this award is shared with a lot of people that have played a very important part down through the years and it belongs to a lot of people.”
She credited her father with giving her a love and fervour for the sport. She instructed the viewers she had hoped her profession wouldn’t be primarily based on wins and losses however within the lifelong buddies she made on the courtroom.
Overall, Moore compiled a collegiate document of 436-196 for a .690 profitable proportion.
Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Executive Director Danielle Donehew mentioned Moore was an enormous who paved the best way for different feminine coaches.
“Most importantly Billie was a teacher who continued to share her wisdom with former student-athletes and colleagues like Pat Summitt, her mentee, long after Billie retired as a coach,” she mentioned.
“I met Billie while working for Pat and will forever cherish her wisdom and humor. Billie’s impact on our sport survives her through the multitude of lives, mine included, she touched.”