Billie Moore, Coach of Champions in Women’s Basketball, Dies at 79

Moore became head coach of U.C.L.A.’s first women’s basketball team, which took the floor for the 1977-78 season, five years after Congress passed what became known as Title IX, which prohibits federally funded schools and other educational institutions from discriminating against students and staff members based on sex.

Her first Bruins team posted a 27-3 record and defeated Maryland, 90-74, on the Bruins’ home court, Pauley Pavilion, for the championship of the A.I.A.W. (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women), the organization founded in 1971 as the successor to the C.I.A.W.

The Bruins’ triumph — sparked by Ann Meyers, a four-time all-American, who had 20 points, 10 rebounds and 8 steals — ended the dominance of women’s basketball by two small schools, Delta State of Mississippi and Immaculata of Pennsylvania, which had taken turns winning the six previous national championships. And it spawned the development of big-time budgets for the women’s game.

But the N.C.A.A. did not put women’s basketball under its auspices until 1982.

Meyers and Denise Curry, who also played for Moore, became Hall of Famers. In Moore’s 16 seasons at U.C.L.A., her teams went 296-191. She became the eighth coach in women’s basketball history to reach the 400-win mark, posting an overall record of 436-196.

She was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/15/sports/ncaabasketball/billie-moore-dead.html