Before there was Caitlin Clark, before there was Kelsey Plum, Maya Moore, Candace Parker, Diana Taurasi or even Cheryl Miller, there was Pearl Moore.
Moore isn’t included on many “Greatest Women’s Basketball Players” lists. She’s not even regularly mentioned in discussions on the best pre-WNBA players of all time, like Miller or Nancy Lieberman or Ann Meyers.
Rather, Moore’s legacy is scantly remembered as the hooper from Francis Marion — a tiny university in her hometown of Florence, S.C. — who scored a staggering 4,061 collegiate points from 1975 to 1979.
“One of the greatest players to ever play the women’s game,” said Sylvia Hatchell, Moore’s coach at Francis Marion.
Moore is a soft-spoken, lighthearted, easily embarrassed woman who owns a colossal scoring record that has stood the test of time but garnered hardly any attention before Clark’s record-book sprint. However, she was far more than just a Clark prototype.
“I just really enjoyed playing basketball,” Moore told The Athletic. “I guess I had some success.”
The Sunday after Clark topped Plum’s NCAA women’s all-time scoring record, a minister at Moore’s church addressed the national attention Clark had received. According to Moore, he told the congregation: “Pearl, we know Caitlin…
