Former Wisconsin basketball star Tamara Moore is helping to break gender barriers in collegiate men’s basketball. The 2017 UW Athletics Hall of Fame inductee was recently named the head men’s basketball coach at Mesabi Range College in Minnesota. The hiring currently makes Moore the only woman to be the head coach of an American men’s college basketball team.
I’m beyond blessed to start this new decade with this amazing honor,” Moore stated on her Facebook page. “I would like to thank Mesabi Range College for this great opportunity & I know we will be successful.”
As a player, Moore starred at Wisconsin from 1998-2002. She finished her Badger career by averaging 16.6 points, 6.1 assists, and 5.1 rebounds in her senior season. The Minnesota native then went on to a six-year WNBA career that ended in 2007, before finishing her playing career in Israel.
The NBA has begun to hire more woman to work in full-time assistant coaching roles over the past five years. Former WNBA star Becky Hammon has been on the San Antonio Spurs staff since 2014, and has even been rumored to be in the discussion for a head coaching job in the near future. There has never been a female head coach at the NBA level. According to a Reuters article published last year, there are also 18 women serving in NBA front office roles.
The college game has been slower to break the gender barrier. Currently, Maine assistant coach Edniesha Curry is the only full-time assistant coach on a men’s basketball staff in the NCAA.
The team that Moore inherits represents Mesabi Range College, a small, community college in Virginia, Minnesota. Moore is not the first woman to lead a men’s program at the community college level. The community college barrier was broken when Kerri-Ann McTiernan was the men’s basketball coach at Kingsborough Community College in New York City in the early 2000’s. No woman has ever been a division one men’s head coach. That is another ceiling that Moore is trying to shatter. “I’m honored to coach on any level,” Moore told ESPN in a recent interview.“The ultimate goal for me is to be a Division I coach. I’ve never been doubted about my coaching ability. I just think it’s all about opportunity. The message, with my hiring, is that the ceiling is now broken, and let’s just take it even further.”
Current Badgers understand the impact that the former Badger is having on the game. Wisconsin women’s basketball head coach Jonathan Tsipis showed his support for Moore via Twitter yesterday.
So Proud of Tamara! She has already coached a men’s PRO team and now will lead a men’s college team. @BadgerWBB alums making a difference https://t.co/ukwol0p8iN
— Jonathan Tsipis (@BadgerCoachTsip) April 13, 2020
The barrier of a woman leading both a men’s division one team and an NBA team is going to broken soon. It is always great to see that a former Badger is helping to lead the way.