Rainbow Wahine hoops great Mosley-McAfee dies
In this March 1, 1990 file photo, University of Hawaii Wahine basketball player Judy Mosley pulls down a rebound and goes up for two over Long Beach's Angelique Lee.
Judy Mosley pulls down an offensive rebound between three defenders to score in a University of Hawaii game.
In this May 2, 2002 file photo, Rainbow Wahine basketball great Judy Mosley-McAfee is seen before a dinner was at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom.
Judy Mosley-McAfee, the most decorated player to wear a University of Hawaii basketball uniform, died Monday after a three-year battle with cancer. She was 45.
Mosley-McAfee (just Mosley in her UH career from 1986-90), was a two-time District VII All-American and UH Circle of Honor inductee who led the Rainbow Wahine in career scoring (2,479 points), scoring average (21.7 ppg) and rebounding (1,441) among her dozen program records. She is the only player in UH hoops history — men’s or women’s — to eclipse 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds, and only player ever to lead the team in scoring and rebounding four straight years.
Mosley-McAfee, a 6-1 forward who hailed from La Puente (Calif.) High School, still owns the UH record for points in a game with 46 at Pacific on Feb. 20, 1989.
She was part of UH NCAA tournament teams under Vince Goo in 1989 (20-10) and 1990 (26-4) out of the Big West Conference.
“This is a sad day for the University of Hawaii ohana,” former coach Vince Goo said in a UH release. “Judy Mosley was the most dominating basketball player — male or female — that ever played for UH. No one has come close to equaling her record in scoring and rebounding. She was a great student who graduated in four years and was someone who was very proud to be a Rainbow Wahine. Judy was an All-American in every sense of the word and we have lost one of the school’s all-time greats.”
Current UH head coach Laura Beeman said her team would play in memory of Mosley in the upcoming season.
“To have somebody who set such a wonderful example for all student-athletes taken from us much too early adds to the gravity of the loss,” Beeman said.
Mosley-McAfee earned UH’s Jack Bonham award for the school’s most prestigious women’s athlete in 1990, the same year she was Big West Co-MVP, carried the team to its first NCAA women’s tournament victory at Montana, and won gold at the World University Games.
As a junior, she averaged a still-school record of 26.7 points per game.
She played in European leagues for seven years after her UH career, then was taken sixth by the Sacramento Monarchs in the WNBA’s 1997 “Elite” draft. Mosley played 12 WNBA games that year and would play internationally for two more years through 1999. To date she is one of two UH alumnae to play in the WNBA.
Mosley-McAfee is survived by her husband Marvin McAfee and her four children. Services are pending.
