Bronx, N.Y. – On December 10, 1970, nearly 50 years to the day, head coach of the newly minted Fordham varsity women's basketball team Judith Hoyer and 13 student-athletes traveled to nearby NYU for the program's first-ever varsity contest, prevailing, 37-22. Since then, the Rams have played just under 1,400 games and seen 237 student-athletes don the maroon and white. However, today Fordham Athletics is excited to begin its celebration of each All-Decade team throughout the season, starting with the influential 1970's, featuring five Hall of Famers.
Women's Basketball and Fordham University will be celebrating the program's 50
th anniversary all season long. To help mark this historic year and to support the program going forward, consider
making a donation today! Our goal is to reach 237 donors to celebrate the number of women who have donned the maroon & white!
*All records and statistics are based off what information Fordham Sports Information have gathered over the years. If anyone should be able to fill in some of the blanks, please do not hesitate to reach out to our office.
Fordham Women's Basketball 1970's All-Decade Team
Anne Gregory (1976-80) – The lone retired number for the women's basketball program hanging in the rafters of the Rose Hill Gymnasium is the #55 of Fordham Hall of Famer Anne Gregory O'Connell. Gregory's name is littered among the program's record book, holding the school's all-time record for career points scored (2,548), rebounds (1,999), and blocks (200), plus three other career records and five single-season records. In 1978-79, when leading the Rams to a final-eight finish nationally, Gregory became the program's only-ever nominee for the Wade Trophy, given out each year to collegiate women's basketball's top player. Though guaranteed to have enjoyed more, Gregory is known to have tallied at least 31 double-doubles over her career.
Mary Hayes (1975-79) – A fellow Fordham Hall of Famer and the Rams' all-time leader in assists, by far, with 725, she is also the school's record-holder for most assists in a game (17), most assists in a season (305 in 1977-78), and most steals in a season (100 in the same year). Hayes also has the second-most assists and steals in a season, 225 and 96, respectively, and would surely lead the career category for the latter if that information had not been lost. Leading her team as a freshman with 14.5 points scored per contest, she led the Rams as a captain her junior and senior years, culminating in the aforementioned final-eight finish nationally.
Mary Ann Bilotti (1976-80) – One of the first 1,000-point scorers in the program's history, finishing with 1,164, currently 14
th-most all-time, Bilotti was a vital cog in the 27-7 team that reached the final eight in 1978-79, starting all 34 contests that year. A co-captain as a senior, she played in 18 contests before suffering an unfortunate season-ending injury midway through the campaign. Enjoyed one of the most prolific performances in program history when scoring 32 points on 16-of-19 shooting against Adelphi in 1978, the second-most makes in a game at Fordham.
Liz McGovern (1977-79) – Allegedly one of the few players in NCAA history to score 1,000 points at two different schools, McGovern was a vital ingredient to the 1977-78 and 1978-79 teams after transferring from Manhattan. Sadly there are no season stats for her junior season but as a senior, she averaged 13.4 points per game on 47.9% shooting across 32 contests, adding 69 assists, 62 steals, and 7.7 rebounds per game. Despite limited information available, McGovern recorded at least six double-doubles in her Fordham career and scored a career-high 32 points against Shorter in the season-ending loss in the AIAW Small College National Tournament in 1978.
Kathy Mosolino (1974-80) – Head coach from 1974 until 1980 and instrumental in the successes of the program in the second half of the decade, enjoying a 115-46 record, second-most in program history and the best win percentage. Oversaw Fordham's rise from a new varsity program to a Small College power to a national power within six seasons, culminating in a final eight finish in the 1979 AIAW Eastern Sectionals, falling in mid-March to nationally-ranked Tennessee coached by a 26-year old Pat Summitt.
Annette Kennedy (1978-80) (Honorable Mention) – An unsung but very important scoring guard for the 1978-80 teams as a freshman and sophomore, appearing in all 68 contests and averaging 11.5 points for those two seasons on 40.7% shooting. Totaled 139 steals over those 68 contests, over two per game, and stepped up well in the absence of Hayes in 1979-80 with a team-high 111 assists.
Under Judith Hoyer, the Rams improved year over year during her three seasons, playing to an 11-7 record in 1972-73. After a brief 7-7 season under Belinda Venancio the next year, Mosolino joined the program and helped lead Fordham to a 10-5 record in 1974-75 and a 14-4 mark the next year before the additions of Gregory and Bilotti, among others in 1976. That first year, the Rams fell to St. John's and Brooklyn College in the AIAW State Tournament but rebounding by going 2-1 against Lehigh, Towson, and Kean in the Women's Regionals two weeks later. The 1977-78 campaign saw a huge leap, with the team going 25-8 and an appearance in the AIAW Small College Tournament. The Rams finished the year with a six-game win streak, including two wins in the Eastern Satellite Tournament and wins over Springfield and Mercy in the Regionals to advance to play nationally-ranked Pepperdine and Shorter.
The 1978-79 squad posted a program record 27 wins over 34 games, including a 12-game win streak, which was the standalone record until the 2018-19 title-winning Rams matched it. Fordham defeated both C.W. Post and Army in the State Tournament, then Providence, Queens College, and Southern Connecticut in the Eastern Regionals, setting up a date with ranked Long Beach State. Behind 29 points and 23 rebounds from Gregory, the Rams pulled the 10-point upset over the former 49ers, setting up a date with Summitt's Lady Vols the next day. The 1979-80 squad regressed slightly, finishing with a third-straight 20-win campaign at 20-14, bowing out of the AIAW Eastern Regionals following a one-point loss to Boston.
Gregory was inducted in the Fordham Hall of Fame in 1986 and had her 55 jersey retired and hung in the Rose Hill Gym rafters. Hayes joined her in 1988, Bilotti in 1989, McGovern in 1992, and Mosolino in 1994.
