In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX, University of Hawai'i Athletics will pay tribute to memorable Rainbow Wahine student-athletes and teams in a series of stories written by Lance Tominaga. The stories will run throughout the 2022-23 athletic season and can be found on the page #Wahine50: Celebrating 50 Years of Rainbow Wahine Athletics.

Since the program's inception in 1974, the University of Hawai'i women's basketball team has featured many outstanding student-athletes. Standouts include Amy Atwell (2017-22), the 2021-22 Big West Player of the Year who led the Rainbow Wahine to the conference championship. There's also Nani Cockett (1994-98), the versatile Kamehameha-Kapalama product who was recently named to the UH Sports Circle of Honor.

There is little doubt, however, which Rainbow Wahine stands above the rest.

The late, great Judy Mosley-McAfee not only rewrote the UH record book, she also led the program to numerous milestones and historical firsts.
 

Here are 27 things you should know about the life and career of Judy Mosley-McAfee:

• Born March 17, 1968 in Los Angeles, Mosley-McAfee was a standout center at La Puente High School. The Los Angeles Times named Mosley-McAfee to its All-San Gabriel Valley Team for two straight years. As a senior, she led all valley schools in scoring (29.4 ppg). She also posted averages of 15.5 rebounds, five assists and four blocked shots per contest.
• Mosley-McAfee had scholarship offers from schools such as USC, Arizona, Fresno State and UC Irvine, but committed to the Rainbow Wahine program immediately after her recruiting trip to Hawai'i. "I didn't think twice," she told a Honolulu Star-Bulletin reporter.
• She made her UH debut on Nov. 28, 1986, in Hawai'i's season opener at Klum Gym. The Rainbow Wahine beat Eastern Illinois, 60-58, with Mosley-McAfee recording 17 points, 14 boards and three blocked shots. Said then-UH head coach Bill Nepfel: "She can be a great player. I don't like to toss 'great' around a lot. But right now she is very good."
• On Feb. 7, 1987, the Rainbow Wahine notched their first-ever victory over a nationally-ranked team, beating No. 4 Long Beach State in overtime, 67-66. Mosley-McAfee had 20 points and 19 points to lead UH. Her putback with 2:03 left in the extra period sealed the win, snapping LBSU's 20-game winning streak.
• Mosley-McAfee was named the Pacific Coast Athletic Association's "Freshman of the Year." She also earned second team All-PCAA honors. (The league was renamed the Big West Conference in 1988.) Mosley-McAfee started all 28 games for Hawai'i, leading the team in both scoring (14.6) and rebounding (11.1). The Wahine finished 21-7 for the season. In the summer of 1987, Nepfel left the program to take a co-head coaching position at San Francisco.
• Vince Goo made his UH head coaching debut on Nov. 27, 1987. Now a sophomore, Mosley-McAfee contributed eight points as Hawai'i defeated Cal-Berkeley in the season opener, 62-58.
• Speaking of debuts, the Rainbow Wahine played their first-ever locally televised game the very next week. On Dec. 4, 1987, Hawai'i breezed past Arkansas, 85-66, behind Mosley-McAfee's 25 points and 13 rebounds.
• What sophomore slump? In her second season as a Rainbow Wahine, Mosley-McAfee averaged 19.6 points and 11.6 rebounds – again leading the team in both categories. She was an All-Big West Second Team selection.
• Mosley-McAfee had a record-setting junior campaign. On Feb. 20, 1989, she scored 46 points in a road game against Pacific, breaking the single-game UH mark previously held by Kim Everett in 1983. She was 18-for-31 from the field and 10-for-11 from the free throw line. She also grabbed 18 boards as Hawai'i routed the Tigers, 80-59.

 

• Just three nights later, against Cal State Fullerton, Mosley-McAfee became the UH program's all-time scoring leader. Two minutes into the second half, Mosley-McAfee scored her 1,364th career point as a Rainbow Wahine, surpassing Lynette Liu, who played at Hawai'i from 1982 to 1985.
• With a 20-9 regular-season record, the Rainbow Wahine earned their first-ever berth in the NCAA Tournament. "We've taken a giant step in earning the recognition we deserve," Goo told the Honolulu Advertiser's Ann Miller. "[It's] probably the biggest step we've made." In the first-round game against Washington, Mosley-McAfee recorded 24 points and 10 rebounds. Hawai'i trailed by only a point at halftime, but the Huskies eventually pulled away on their home court, 87-79.
• Mosley-McAfee became the first Rainbow Wahine in program history to earn All-American honors. She finished second in the nation in scoring (26.7 ppg) and fifth in rebounding (13.4).
• Hawai'i won 11 straight games to open the 1989-90 season. The streak included an 88-78 victory over No. 15 Virginia in the championship game of the Wahine Classic. Now a senior, Mosley-McAfee led UH with 32 points and 15 rebounds, out-dueling Virginia's Dawn Staley (29 points). Mosley-McAfee was named the tournament's MVP. The All-American Staley would go on to win three Olympic gold medals with the U.S. women's national team. Now the head coach at South Carolina, she has led the Gamecocks to two national championships.
• The day after Hawai'i's upset over Virginia, the Rainbow Wahine earned an Associated Press Top 25 national ranking for the first time in program history. The team would be ranked for 16 straight weeks, reaching as high as No. 12.
• On Feb. 1, 1990, in a 107-75 home victory over UC Santa Barbara, Mosley-McAfee poured in 26 points and became the Big West Conference's all-time scoring leader. "The team goals are the most important ones," she told the Star-Bulletin after the game. "Still, each season I've set individual goals as well, and it's very satisfying to get the record."
• For the second consecutive season, the Rainbow Wahine received a berth in the NCAA Tournament. This time, however, they advanced to the second round. Five UH players scored in double figures as Hawai'i stunned Montana, 83-78, on the Grizzlies' home floor. Guard Ayesha Brooks led the team with 24 points, while Mosley-McAfee added 19 points and 16 rebounds.
• Three nights later, on March 17, Hawai'i would fall to No. 1-seed Stanford, 106-76, despite Mosley-McAfee's 28 points and 11 boards. The Cardinal would go on to win the entire tournament, giving Hall of Fame head coach Tara VanDerveer the first of her three NCAA championships. That Stanford team also featured senior guard Jennifer Azzi, who later helped the U.S. win a gold medal in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
• Mosley-McAfee was named an All-American for the second straight year. For the season, she averaged 25.7 points and 14.4 rebounds. Over her four-year career, she posted averages of 21.7 points and 12.6 rebounds.
• Mosley-McAfee graduated from UH in May 1990 with a double major in sociology and political science. She also received the prestigious Jack Bonham Award, which is given to the senior student-athlete who "best exemplifies the ideals for which Jack Bonham stood for in the areas of athletic excellence, academic achievement, public service, leadership and character."
• Mosley-McAfee left an indelible mark in the Rainbow Wahine record books. Among the highlights: most career points (2,479), highest career scoring average (21.7), most 20-point games (71), most career rebounds (1,441), most field goals (901), most free throws (677) and most points in a game (46). She is the only player to average a double-double for all four seasons of her UH career (leading her team in both categories every season).
• In August 1990, Mosley-McAfee signed a one-year, $60,000 contract to play professionally in Spain. She would continue to play overseas for a number of years.
• In July of 1991, Mosley-McAfee was part of a select U.S. team that captured gold at the World University Games in England. Playing alongside hoops standouts such as Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley, Ruthie Bolton and Dena Head, Mosley-McAfee helped the U.S. go 8-0 in the competition, winning by an average scoring margin of 41.0 ppg. In the semifinal against China, she recorded 20 points and 12 rebounds. In the gold medal game against Spain, she collected a game-high 20 boards.
• In 1997, the Sacramento Monarchs selected the 28-year-old Mosley-McAfee with the No. 6 overall pick in the inaugural WNBA Elite Draft. Luminaries such as Karl Malone and John Stockton attended the season opener and watched as the former Rainbow Wahine scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds to help the Monarchs beat the Utah Starzz.
• On June 27, 1997, Mosley-McAfee's scored a WNBA career-high 26 points against the Los Angeles Sparks. But less than a month later, looking to shake up their roster, the Monarchs released her. Mosley-McAfee's WNBA career lasted 13 games. She averaged 4.2 points and 3.6 rebounds a contest.

 

• In 1997, Mosley-McAfee was inducted into the UH Sports Circle of Honor. Years later, on Jan. 31, the school honored her again by officially retiring her jersey number (#32). She became the first student-athlete – male or female – to have her number retired at the Stan Sheriff Center.
• Sadly, Mosley-McAfee never got to witness the retirement ceremony. She passed away on September 16, 2013 after a three-year battle with cancer. She was 45. She was survived by her husband, Marvin McAfee, and their four children.
• Former UH head coach Vince Goo said in a statement, "This is a sad day for the University of Hawai'i ohana. Judy Mosley was the most dominating basketball player — male or female — that ever played for UH. No one has come close to equaling her records 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."