Billie Moore

Billie Jean Moore (May 5, 1943 – December 14, 2022) was an American college basketball coach. She was the first head coach in women's college basketball history to lead two different schools to national championships. Her overall college coaching record was 436–196. Moore was the head coach of the first United States women's national basketball team to compete in the Olympics. In 1999 she was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

Early life Moore was born in Humansville, Missouri, on May 5, 1943. Her family later lived in several places in neighboring Kansas before settling in Westmoreland. Her father was a principal at Westmoreland High School and coached both boys and girls basketball in the city; the school did not sponsor any sports. She also played for their Amateur Athletic Union basketball team. who was the women's basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton. Albrecht left the school and recommended Moore, who was hired as their women's basketball coach and athletic director. In her first year as coach, her team won the CIAW national championship.

While the United States women's national team had competed in international events such as Jones Cup, World University Games, Pan American Games and World Championships, the Olympics focuses attention like no other event. Team member Juliene Simpson explained, "Up until then, many people didn't know we had national teams playing in international competition. After the Olympics, that changed quite a bit." In 1976, the Olympics added women's basketball. Moore, who had been the assistant coach of the U.S. Pan American team which won the gold medal in Mexico in 1975, was selected to be the first Olympic head coach of the U.S. women's team. She coached the team to a silver medal in the Montreal Olympics, In two of the next three seasons, Moore led the Bruins to high national rankings. She coached at UCLA for 16 seasons, compiling a 296–181 record. However, the Bruins were 127–102 in her last eight seasons, and did not finish higher than third place in the Pacific-10 Conference during that span. She resigned after a 13–14 finish in the 1992–93 season, amid criticism in recent years of her coaching methods, as well as an ongoing review of her program after a player alleged mental and verbal abuse by Moore. "I don’t know if you can push them as hard as you could 10 years ago," Moore said. "There’s just a different level of sensitivity." Moore was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999 and in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in the same year. She received the Naismith's Women's Outstanding Contribution Award in 2002. She had been in hospice care with multiple myeloma.

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