Pearl Moore (born March 16, 1957) is an American former basketball player. During her collegiate career at

Francis Marion University Francis Marion University is a public university near Florence, South Carolina. It is named in honor of American Revolutionary War Brigadier General Francis Marion. History The university dates back to 1957, when the University of South Caroli ...

, Moore established herself as one of the most prolific scorers in college history, male or female, and is the all-time career-scoring leader in women's college basketball. She later played professionally in the

Women's Professional Basketball League The Women's Professional Basketball League (abbreviated WBL) was a professional women's basketball league in the United States. The league played three seasons from the fall of 1978 to the spring of 1981. The league was the first professional w ...

with the New York Stars and the St. Louis Streak.

Early life

Born in

Florence, South Carolina Florence is a city in and the county seat of Florence County, South Carolina, United States. It lies at the intersection of Interstates 20 and 95 and is the eastern terminus of the former. It is the primary city within the Florence metropol ...

, Moore began playing basketball while attending Wilson High School where she was in the starting line-up for all four years, and achieved early success, earning the MVP award at the 1975 and 1976

AAU Junior Olympic Games The AAU Junior Olympic Games are the pinnacle competitions held annually by the US Amateur Athletic Union. Overview The AAU Junior Olympic Games are known as the largest national multi-sport event for youth in the United States. It has become th ...

College career

Moore, who commenced her collegiate career with

Anderson Junior College Anderson Junior College (AJC) was a junior college established in 1984 and located in Yio Chu Kang, Singapore, offering two-year pre-university courses leading to the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level examinations. In 2019, it was merged ...

for one semester (where she amassed 177 points in eight games), transferred to

, and, because of

AIAW The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was a college athletics organization in the United States, founded in 1971 to govern women's college competitions in the country and to administer national championships (see AIAW Cham ...

rules, she was immediately eligible to play the remainder of the 1975–76 season for the campus's team, the Patriots. Patriots head coach

Sylvia Hatchell Sylvia Rhyne Hatchell (born February 28, 1952) is a former American women's basketball coach, who last coached for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and was the fifth with the most career wins in NCAA women's basketball histo ...

reflected on Moore's unique ability to score: "She was outside, inside, she could handle the ball, draw fouls. I saw her wait for the defense to catch up with her so she could draw the foul and make a 3-point play. She was ahead of her time". During her junior year, Moore posted a then single-game record 60 points in a victory over Eastern Washington State College in the 1978 AIAW Small College National Tournament. On March 10, 1979, in her final collegiate game, Moore scored 42 points against the

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UT Chattanooga, UTC, or Chattanooga) is a public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1886 and is part of the University of Tennessee System. History UTC was founde ...

to finish her collegiate career at Francis Marion with 3,884 points, which was the all-time women’s collegiate scoring record (as set forth in the AIAW record book maintained by the NCAA) until beaten by Caitlin Clark during the 2023-24 season. Clark finished with 3,951 points. Overall, Moore averaged 30.6 points per game during her time at Francis Marion, an era where the three-point arc was not incorporated into women's basketball. Moore also helped lead the Patriots to three national championship appearances. Throughout her career with Francis Marion, Moore always scored in double figures, and posted fewer than 20 points in only 18 of her total 128 games, which both testify to her dominance offensively. With the AIAW having dissolved in 1982, it remains the most points scored by any AIAW basketball player, Moore is sometimes credited with scoring 4,061 points in college, but that includes 177 points scored during her single semester at Anderson Junior College. Because junior college statistics are not included in either NCAA or AIAW scoring records, Moore’s AIAW collegiate scoring total is recognized as 3,884. That is the AIAW scoring record, ahead of Lynette Woodard’s AIAW total of 3,649. The current record for points scored against four-year schools is 3,961, by Grace Beyer of NAIA member UHSP from 2019 to 2024. Beyer finished her college career 10 points ahead of Clark.

Professional career

Moore graduated from Francis Marion in 1979 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

. She was subsequently selected in the first round by the New York Stars in the

draft. In her first professional season, the Stars concluded their regular schedule with the highest winning-percentage in the league. Despite a 36-point game from "Machine Gun"

Molly Bolin "Machine Gun" Molly Bolin (born Monna Lea Van Benthuysen; November 13, 1957) is an American former basketball player. Following a college basketball, college career at Grand View University, she went on to star at the first women's professional ba ...

of the Iowa Cornets, the Stars won the championship series behind a 27-point effort by Moore.Bradley, Robert
"HISTORY OF THE WOMEN'S PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL LEAGUE"
Association for Professional Basketball Research. Accessed October 11, 2016. She played another season, joining the St. Louis Streak, and participated in the 1981 WBL All-Star Game. When the WBL folded, Moore played the final season of her professional career in Venezuela.

Later life

Following her pro career, Moore coached high-school teams. She has received recognition for her accomplishments in women's basketball with her induction into the FMU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992 and the

Women's Basketball Hall of Fame The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame honors those who have contributed to the sport of women's basketball. The Hall of Fame opened in 1999 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. It is the only facility of its kind dedicated to all levels of women's bask ...

in 2011. Michael Hawkins, who nominated Moore for the latter honor, called her one of college basketball's most prolific scorers and the best player Francis Marion ever produced. Moore currently hosts her own girls' basketball camp. In May 2021, Moore was selected to be inducted into the

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pre ...

in its 2021 class.

Footnotes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Pearl 1957 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Venezuela American women's basketball players Basketball players from South Carolina College women's basketball players in the United States Francis Marion University alumni Junior college women's basketball players in the United States Sportspeople from Florence, South Carolina Women's Professional Basketball League players 20th-century American sportswomen