LOS ANGELES (AP) — Billie Moore, who coached the first U.S. Olympic women's basketball team to a silver medal at the Montreal Games in 1976, has died. She was 79.
UCLA, where Moore was the women's head coach from 1977-93, announced Thursday that she died at home surrounded by family and friends.
Moore is a member of both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. She led UCLA to a 27-3 mark in 1978 and the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women's championship. Moore holds the UCLA mark with 296 victories in her 16 years as coach.
Moore also led Cal State Fullerton to a national title in 1970, a year before the AIAW was founded.
She guided the U.S. women's Olympic team at the Montreal Games nearly a half century ago. Her team featured 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 it was “proud to have been part of (Moore's) journey. Our thoughts are with her loved ones at this difficult time.”
The current U.S. Olympic coach, South Carolina's Dawn Staley, said on social media that women's basketball “lost a legend today in Billie Moore ... thank you coach for servicing our game with class, dignity and purpose.”
Staley's team captured the seventh straight women's gold medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
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