Pearl Moore, The Original Women’s Scoring College Legend

⏱️ 16 min read        

Before Caitlin Clark dazzled us with her sharpshooting and Kelsey Plum lit up the scoreboard, there was Pearl Moore. Ever heard of her? Most haven't, yet she's the woman with a college scoring record so incredible, even today's stars can't touch it. Meet the forgotten legend of women's college basketball. Pearl Moore, the player who redefined the game long before the three-point basket ever existed. 

Welcome to That's Life, I Swear. This podcast is about life's happenings in this world that conjure up such words as intriguing, frightening, life-changing, inspiring, and more. I'm Rick Barron your host. 

That said, here's the rest of this of story

Long before we heard the names such as Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Plum, Maya Moore, Candace Parker, Diana Taurasi or even Cheryl Miller became synonymous with women's basketball greatness, Pearl Moore was blazing a trail down the basketball court.

Pearl Moore driving up for a lay up. Courtesy of: WMBF News

Moore's legacy endures as the scoring machine from the modest Francis Marion University in her hometown of Florence, South Carolina. Between 1975 and 1979, she etched her name in the record books by amassing an astonishing 4,061 collegiate points.

Keep in mind the 4,061 points as I’ll come back to that later.

Sylvia Hatchell, Moore's coach at Francis Marion, stated that Pearl was "One of the greatest players to ever grace the women's game," bearing witness to her amazing scoring skills.

A soft-spoken, lighthearted soul with an endearing humility, Moore owns a colossal scoring record that has stood the test of time, getting little fanfare until Clark's recent record-breaking exploits. However, reducing her to merely a prototype of Clark's scoring brilliance would be a disservice.

On Feb 15, 2024, Caitlin Clark shattered Kelsey Plum's NCAA women's all-time scoring record. The Sunday following of that week, the minister at Pearl Moore's church addressed the national fanfare surrounding Clark's accomplishment. According to the 66-year-old Moore, he declared to the congregation: "Pearl, we know Caitlin Clark has broken Kelsey Plum's record, but we all know right here in this church who the true leading scorer is. And that's you."

Moore admitted that such attention makes her uneasy, preferring to let her basketball accomplishments speak for themselves on the court.

Pearl’s basketball talents had humble beginnings in the Carolina countryside, where as a young she began polishing skills shooting rubber balls through makeshift rims fashioned from tire scraps held aloft by peach baskets. Later, as her family of 13 relocated to Florence, South Carolina, Pearl had her first taste of real hoops at local playgrounds. It was on those sunbaked courts, Moore cultivated her shooting touch and dribbling wizardry, routinely outmaneuvering bigger boys. It was also where her fierce competitive spirit was forged.

Slyvia Hatchell said that Pearl always wanted to beat the boys because they would taunt her relentlessly, but she did her talking on the court.

Yet even after holding her own against the playground trash-talkers, Moore was too shy to try out for the basketball team when she enrolled at Wilson High. That is, until the coach witnessed Moore's shooting ability and encouraged her to join the squad after an impromptu tryout. During her four years at Wilson High, Pearl Moore improved her scoring ability every year. She averaged 13 points as a freshman, 14 as a sophomore, 17 as a junior, before blossoming into a 25 points-per-game scoring threat her senior year.

Despite her dominance in high school basketball, only two colleges extended scholarship offers her way - Louisiana and Michigan. While the two offers were great, for Pearl, she wasn’t thrilled by distant from home.

Instead, Anne Long, who took over as the coach at Wilson High after Pearl’s junior season, took Pearl on a visit to Anderson Junior College, a regional powerhouse. But after just a few weeks playing there, she was miserable, driving over three hours home to Florence every weekend, ready to return for good.

That's when Anne decided to contact Sylvia Hatchell. Sylvia had never heard of Pearl but drove out to the Wilson gym to watch her play. There, a two-on-two game broke out, with Long and Pearl on one team, and Hatchell on the other with Moore’s younger brother Jeffrey 

After getting beaten soundly, Sylvia saw the talent Pearl had and was sold.

Hatchell was just starting a 44-year coaching career that took her to North Carolina, where she won a national championship, eight ACC tournament titles, and appeared in three Final Fours and earned induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Now wearing the Francis Marion uniform, Pearl Moore was a basketball aberration, playing the game with a skill set that seemed transported from a future era.

With an effortless stroke, she rained down jumpers from long range, then blew past defenders who dared close out on her shot. If overmatched by a smaller opponent, Moore would punish them in the post with an array of polished back-to-the-basket moves.

When she graduated, her mind-boggling 4,061 career points stood as an Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) small-school record. The NCAA didn't institute a women's basketball tournament until 1982 and did not oversee or maintain sports records through the 1970s when the AIAW served as the governing body.

The NCAA record books omit scoring totals from the AIAW era, which is why Clark and Moore hold distinct scoring records. Lynette Woodard of Kansas holds the AIAW large-school mark with 3,649 points, while Pete Maravich's 3,667 points pace the NCAA men's ranks. Barring an improbable fifth season, Clark, a senior at Iowa, would never surpass Moore's lofty scoring standard.

Earlier I called out to remember the 4,061 points, Pearl achieved in her four years of college. All of those points were counted as two-point buckets only at the time The three-point basket came into play for college men basketball on April 2, 1986. 

The statistic was first recognized in the 1987–88 season, when 3-point field goals were officially instituted by the NCAA for women's play.

Pearl completed her four years of college basketball at Francis Marion from 1975-1979.

Just do the math.

Even before the advent of the 3-point line, Pearl Moore possessed an uncanny ability to manufacture three-point plays with regularity, showcasing a craftiness well beyond her years.

Sylvia Hatchell recounted how Pearl played the game. 

Pearl Moore was a basketball savant whose court ability defied the constraints of her era. With the ball in her hands, she would seize control, blazing downcourt on an unstoppable fast break. 

If an uncontested layup presented itself, more often than not, Moore would bide her time, deliberately allowing the defense to recover before initiating contact, deftly drawing the foul as she scored through the collision. This calculated ploy to manufacture three-point plays was a signature move that left spectators in awe of her preternatural court sense.

"I witnessed her pull off that savvy maneuver countless times," recounts Sylvia Hatchell. "She'd purposefully let the defenders catch up, solely to draw contact. Truly ahead of her time."

Moore's scoring exploits were the stuff of legend – her college career featuring three seismic  50-point eruptions, highlighted by an unforgettable 60-point barrage. She averaged an eye-popping 30.6 points per game, eclipsing the 1,000-point plateau in three of her four seasons – all accomplished without the aid of the game-altering 
three-point line that has since reshaped offensive strategies.

Adding an extra layer of degree of difficulty, women at that time employed the same ball used in men's basketball, rather than the smaller, women's regulation sphere of today.

"She is as good a women's basketball player that has ever graced the hardwood," proclaimed Michael Hawkins, a mainstay within Francis Marion's athletic department since 1981. "An absolute pure scoring machine."

Had the three-point line been instituted during Moore's collegiate tenure, Hawkins hypothesized her already astronomical career point total could have ballooned by an additional 400 points. Hatchell's projection was even loftier, speculating Moore "probably would've had another 1,000" points with the extended perimeter at her disposal.

Iowa Guard, Caitlin Clark. Courtesy of ABC 4 News

While the basketball world is fixated on Caitlin Clark's incredible scoring record 3,951 points, it's mind-boggling to ponder someone from a bygone era achieving such prolific numbers without modern-day advantages like the 3-point line. For her to consistently perform at that level night after night, amassing an incredible 4,061 points is almost inconceivable, and it’s doubtful if anyone will ever break that record.

Perhaps the crowning moment of Moore's storied career at Francis Marion came during her junior season at the 1978 AIAW Small College National Tournament. There, she scored 60 points against Eastern Washington State College.

Remarkably, Moore was oblivious to her scoring outburst as it unfolded. She said she was so focused into the game; it didn’t dawn on her that she had achieved 60 points…in eight minutes of play! Her team went on to win.

It was decades later, that Hatchell recalled the amazing accomplishment of Pearl. She still shakes her head over her decision to rest Moore for stretches during that sizzling performance. "I mean, Pearl was just scoring at will. I think she had 12 assists in that game too, and gosh, I took her out," Hatchell stated in an interview. "Can you believe that? I took the hot hand out. If I had known then it was a record-setting night, I would've left her in. I was just trying to be respectful and not run up the score. But I pulled her with probably three- or four-minutes left, and she already had those 60 points."

Despite her legendary scoring exploits, Pearl Moore remains the epitome of humility, reluctant to divulge vivid recollections from that unforgettable 60-point masterpiece. Her fiercely competitive spirit, however, prevents her from basking in nostalgia over her illustrious Francis Marion days with a sense of complete fulfillment.

Playing basketball at Francis Marion, was one of the best moments in her life. The only disappointment was not capturing a championship in the AIAW. 

Loyal McQueen's earliest memory of Pearl Moore is etched in her mind. It was a chance encounter that would foreshadow her own hoops journey. Twelve years before McQueen became the highest-ranked high school recruit in South Carolina, she was a 6-year-old attending her first basketball camp, hosted by Moore in their hometown. McQueen and the other young kids were sent to practice on smaller hoops upstairs, away from the bigger hoops in the main gym. But after McQueen crushed the rest of the youngsters, the counselors said she needed to be brought downstairs to face the 9- and 10-year-olds.

“Well downstairs, that’s where Pearl was,” McQueen said. “And then I started killing the 9-year-olds, so she came up to me, and she was just like, ‘Keep working.’ And she gave me some love, but she also gave me some tough love, and I mean at 6.”

“She’s definitely somebody that I look up to, and I hope one day that I can make an impact just as big as what she made in Florence,” McQueen said.

When Loyal McQueen contemplated transferring from Georgia Tech in 2021, Pearl Moore encouraged her to seize the opportunity and forge her own legacy at Alabama. McQueen explains that their bond has evolved far beyond the basketball court into a cherished mentorship.

"It's invaluable to tap into someone who has walked the path you're on now and experienced the same trials. To receive guidance from a living legend is always a blessing," McQueen says. "I'm just so grateful and humbled to have cultivated a relationship with her that transcends the game and allowed me to know her on a deeper, personal level."

While Moore admittedly didn't witness Caitlin Clark's 49-point masterpiece against Michigan that eclipsed Kelsey Plum's scoring record, those who marveled at Moore's dominance in her prime can't help but draw parallels between the two scoring savants and their command of the game.

"They're strikingly similar, especially as elite shooters who could also handle the ball with incredible vision to rack up assists," reflects Sylvia Hatchell. "For Pearl, just playing was a joyous experience – she was always smiling, keeping her teammates loose and laughing. She made the game fun for everyone around her. That infectious spirit reminds me of Caitlin. They're transcendent because of their pure love for the game."

With or without comparisons to Caitlin Clark, Pearl Moore has enjoyed witnessing the recent surge in women’s basketball. “So many trailblazers laid the foundation for the game’s growth,” Moore said. “When we were coming up, we didn’t have female role models on TV to look up to.”

The rapid expansion of women’s basketball makes cross-generational comparisons difficult, but Hawkins emphasized that each player has contributed significantly to the sport’s progress.

“There were pioneers in the 1970s like Ann Meyers, Carol Blazejowski, and Pearl Moore. The 1980s brought a new wave with players like Lynette Woodard and Cheryl Miller,” Hawkins said. “Moore, without a doubt, is one of the greatest women’s basketball players ever.”

As her tenure at Francis Marion was ending, Pearl Moore received numerous offers to join the fledgling Women’s Pro Basketball League. She played for the New York Stars in 1979-80, leading them to a championship in her first season, and then for the St. Louis Streak in 1980-81 until the league dissolved in 1981. Moore's exceptional talent seamlessly transitioned to the professional stage.

Moore's remarkable achievements have been recognized with her induction into the Francis Marion Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011, and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021. 

Upon receiving the Naismith Hall of Fame call, Moore modestly remarked to Hatchell, “I don’t deserve this.” Hatchell responded, “Pearl, you absolutely deserve this for all you’ve contributed to the game. The greats of the NBA, they all admire you.”

Today, Moore’s legacy is prominent in Florence, with the gym at Wilson High, the Florence community center, and various local clinics and training sessions proudly bearing her name. “When I think about Florence, Pearl is the first person that comes to mind,” McQueen said.

Moore continues working at the local post office, cherishing the community celebrating her success. Despite her numerous accolades, the local recognition holds the most significance for her. “Out of my college career, I got three rings,” she said. “I have the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame ring, my Naismith Hall of Fame ring, and my college graduation ring. The graduation ring is the one I’m most proud of.” 

Pearl Moore today. Courtesy of: WMBF News

What can we learn from this story? What's the takeaway?

A love of the game motivated Moore to continuously improve physically and mentally on the court, but that wasn’t the only type of love driving Moore’s involvement in basketball. Moore valued the community she found there and made sure anyone coming up behind her had the opportunity to find their basketball community too.

Moore also understood that growing the women’s game is an ongoing process. 

Well, there you go, my friends; that's life, I swear

For further information regarding the material covered in this episode, I invite you to visit my website, which you can find on Apple Podcasts, for show notes and the episode transcript.

As always, I thank you for the privilege of you listening and your interest. 

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