Modern life can be isolating. Kurt Vonnegut said as much during a graduation address at New York’s Hobart and William Smith Colleges on May 26, 1974.
“What should young people do with their lives today?” asked the Indianapolis-born author. “Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.”
Vonnegut, who taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1965 and ’66, urged the recent grads to seek “a folk society.”
“It is curious that such communities should be so rare, since human beings are genetically such gregarious creatures. They need plenty of like-minded friends and relatives almost as much as they need B-complex vitamins and a heartfelt moral code.”
It doesn’t help that the stuff around which a folk society might form — religion, art, shared history, political goals — are as fraught as ever in 2024, even if we have plenty of tools for finding like-minded people. There is too much sapping our collective energy and not enough fueling it.
But occasionally, something comes along that turns us cynical grown-ups into giddy kids again. The recent solar eclipse reinvigorated global interest in astronomy and inspired millions to leave their homes to witness a phenomenon, in person, together. It was rare, temporary, awesome. People traveled to cities in the path of totality, where the darkness was total and the spectacle best. Those who already lived there? Just plain lucky.
In that sense, Iowa Hawkeye fans are some of the luckiest folks in the world. When it came time for Caitlin Clark and her team to change the world of college basketball and women’s sports more broadly, Iowans were already seated for the show.
The Path of Totality
Much has already been written about “the Caitlin Clark effect” on the sports world. Record ticket sales and TV viewership everywhere from Carver Hawkeye Arena to the national tournament to the WNBA draft. Countless articles on countless platforms — everything from gossip blogs to 17,500-word ESPN profiles to NBC News reports by a Daily Iowan sports reporter and UI sophomore whose local beat has become one of the nation’s biggest stories (shout-out to Matt McGowan).
Even without watching a single, mesmerizing game, the power of this Iowa women’s basketball team is evident. It’s there in the local, state and national ads featuring the players: Kate Martin and Hannah Stuelke for Estela’s Fresh Mex, Gabby Marshall for Casey’s and Panchero’s, and Caitlin Clark for Hy-Vee, State Farm, Nike, Gatorade and Xfinity — the latter company hiring a Des Moines cinematographer, Bruce James Bales, to help shoot their viral “two Caitlin Clarks” commercial.
That power was on display last spring, when the team partnered with the Coralville Community Food Pantry for an event to raise $22,000. They ended up bringing in $77,000 and hundreds of visitors during an ongoing period of unprecedented hunger in Iowa.
Pantry director and UI grad John Boller joked the collaboration with Clark was like having “a cheat code in philanthropy.”
“We had a lot of young, first-time donors, so she’s activating a new generation of people who want to contribute to this work,” he told Iowa Magazine.
Bluder flexed her power this fall, when she arranged a charity scrimmage against DePaul inside Kinnick Stadium. Tickets were between $5 and $25, and 55,646 showed up, exceeding expectations and breaking the all-time attendance record for a single women’s basketball game — and raising a quarter million dollars for the UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital.
And there’s no doubt the popularity of the team has been an economic boon for the state of Iowa. That much was clear if you visited an Iowa City sports bar on a big IWBB game day, or counted the Raygun T-shirts in ESPN’s crowd shots.
“Women’s basketball at Iowa has been by far our best NIL project of all the teams we worked [with],” Mike Draper, owner of the Des Moines-based Raygun, told the Athletic in March. “We’ve worked with other teams that [have] great basketball players or great sports players in general, but there’s not the same level of charisma.”
The appeal of Clark merchandise is undeniable. Most recently her new Indiana Fever jersey became the highest-selling rookie jersey Fanatic has ever sold (in 24 hours, Clark’s one jersey outsold the entire Dallas Cowboys over the past year, according to the company). In late April, Nike reportedly reached a $28 million deal with Clark that will include the pinnacle of sports products: a signature shoe.
Clark fever has had untold influence over Iowa kids. Participation in youth sports among girls in Coralville has increased 35 percent since 2019, according to the city’s parks and rec department. Adriana Mafra, a coordinator at the Burlington Area YMCA, said about 80 percent of participants in a recent skills-and-drills program were girls. Both boys and girls are inundating their Cedar Rapids sports leagues with requests to wear the number 22.
At Vernon Middle School in Marion, social studies teachers challenged students to donate $3 for the UI children’s hospital “to represent Caitlin Clark’s skill at making 3-pointers” during March Madness. With a Caitlin Clark cut-out and autographed gear offered as rewards, the 7th and 8th graders raised roughly $4,000.
Perhaps Clark’s greatest commendation came just minutes after her most high-profile loss. Dawn Staley, one of the all-time great players and coaches, took the time to shout-out Clark during South Carolina’s on-court celebrations following their victory over the Hawkeyes in the national championship, a game that averaged 18.7 million viewers.
“I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport,” Coach Staley said. “She carried a heavy load for our sport and it’s not going to stop here … So Caitlin Clark, if you’re out there, you are one of the GOATs of our game and I appreciate you.”
Bluder may not have pulled off a perfect season like Staley (yet), but after 40 years as a head coach in Iowa and nearly 25 at UI, Coach Bluder is well on her way to legend status herself.
Under the blinding spotlight of mainstream acclaim (and backlash, and manufactured drama, all focused on hometown heroes under 23 years old), it’s easy to lose sight of the fact Iowa’s breakout success was a long process — one that required patience, trust and more than a few leaps of faith.
The Player’s Coach
For most of her 62 years, “nobody cared about women’s basketball,” Bluder admitted. Attendance was sparse. Athletic scholarships were practically nonexistent before Title IX became law in 1972. Uniforms and facilities were often less than ideal.
Men’s basketball at UI goes back to the origins of the game. An 1896 match played in Iowa City between squads from Iowa and the University of Chicago is considered the first real intercollegiate game. That was only five years after James Naismith created basketball. But despite the tremendous popularity of high school girls’ basketball in Iowa, UI didn’t have a women’s team until 1974. Bluder became the program’s fifth head coach in 2000.
No one personifies basketball in the state of Iowa better than Bluder. She’s been a Linn-Mar High Lion and University of Northern Iowa Panther, competing in the six-on-six, pre-Title IX era of women’s hoops. She’s built programs into national contenders as the coach of the St. Ambrose Fighting Bees and the Drake Bulldogs before coming to UI.
“Coach Bluder is a Hall of Fame coach,” Clark said in March. “I think the biggest thing for me throughout the recruiting process that I loved about her is she’s a player’s coach. She’s not going to have a set offense that you have to run. She’s going to tailor everything to what she has on her team and what’s going to put her team in positions to be very successful.”
“When I stepped on campus when I first visited, I could just feel the family atmosphere, how close the girls were, how close the girls were to the coaches,” Gabbie Marshall told the Des Moines Register. “You don’t see that everywhere. You don’t see [those] coach, player relationships. I think just what you guys see Coach Bluder as is who she is. She’s so real.”
When Bluder was hired by UI after 10 years coaching at Drake, her assistant coach Jan Jensen was offered Bluder’s job. The Kimballton, Iowa native had been a senior on the Bulldogs when Bluder first arrived to coach the team. That season, 1990-’91, Jensen had the highest average points per game in Division I basketball, 29.6.
Jensen chose to join Bluder in Iowa City as her associate head coach.
“Jan could’ve been the head coach of Drake University,” Bluder said. “But we had a dream — we wanted to go to a Final Four, we wanted to fill Carver.”
Getting UI to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament was undoubtedly the longest process of the women’s coaching career, but one they patiently prepared for.
Bluder’s Bunch
Bluder and Jensen have coached a range of excellent players recruited from around the Midwest: Samantha Logic of Racine, Wisconsin, the first Hawkeye to become a first-round draftee in the WNBA when she was picked 10th overall in the 2015 by the Atlanta Dream. Megan Gustafson from Port Wing, Wisconsin, the first Big 10 player to earn the prestigious Naismith National Player of the Year award (and the first time a player and coach from the same school won Naismiths in the same year; Bluder was awarded Naismith National Coach of the Year in 2019) and a key factor in Iowa’s first Elite Eight appearance. In 2020, Gustafson’s number 10 jersey became only the second retired by Iowa after Michelle “Ice” Edwards’ 30 in 1990. Last month, Clark’s 22 became the third.
Gustafson has found success on international teams — so much so she obtained dual citizenship and will likely represent Spain on their Olympic national team this summer — but has also played on WNBA teams. She’s currently in pre-season training with the Las Vegas Aces alongside Kate Martin, who was drafted by the Aces as the 17th overall pick. This Draft Day surprise was one of the most satisfying developments of an already heartwarming season for Hawk fans.
“I’m so proud of Kate because her dreams came true,” Bluder said in a press release after the draft. “She has been such a big part of our program over the last six years. Her efforts did not go unnoticed by her peers. I wish Kate all the success with this next step.”
Then there’s Monika Czinano from Watertown, Minnesota, who formed one half of a power scoring duo with Clark from 2020 to 2023 affectionately coined The Law Firm of Clark and Czinano. And, of course, there’s this season’s seniors Martin of Edwardsville, Illinois, Molly Davis of Midland, Michigan and Gabbie Marshall of Cincinnati, Ohio.
There are some incredible players joining the squad next season, including five-star guard Addie Deal, a Californian with Clark-like scoring and defending abilities who turned down offers from LSU, Ohio State, Indiana, USC, UCLA and others in favor of Iowa. Another is Lucy Olsen, a junior guard whose 23.3 average points a game for Villanova last season made her the third-highest scorer in the nation behind Clark and USC’s JuJu Watkins. After entering the transfer portal, Olsen settled on Iowa for her fourth and final year of collegiate play.
Still, it’s hard to imagine next year’s star as anyone other than Hannah Stuelke, the versatile forward from Cedar Rapids.
“I always wanted to go to Iowa as a kid,” Stuelke told the Register in 2022. “I’ve always lived here, grew up a Hawkeye fan. We went to a ton of games and were always watching when we couldn’t make it. It was really cool to have my dreams come true.”
The night Gustafson led Iowa to victory over Missouri in the second round of the 2019 NCAA tournament, Stuelke met Bluder and Jensen on the court and surprised them with her decision: in three years, she would be a Hawkeye. They all hugged.
“It’s been really fun with Hannah because you build relationships more when they commit that early,” Bluder said. “… But with everybody who you identify as a great talent early, there’s a little bit of a risk, right? Are they going to continue to develop? Are they going to continue to stay motivated?”
Bluder needn’t have worried. Stuelke quickly became a consistent player with great footwork, a killer jump shot and a 6’2’’ wingspan that often felt much wider. She ended her high school career as the state’s leading scorer and Washington High School’s all-time leading scorer with 1,492 points, earning the title of Miss Iowa Basketball 2022.
Bluder said she watched her future starter’s ascension like “a proud parent.”
It’s fun to watch folks have fun, and Stuelke and her teammates always seem to, even if their opponents — or life in general — keep knocking them to the floor.
“As a coach, not only do you worry about their physical well-being, you worry about their mental, emotional well-being and definitely it’s something that we have to talk about and protect at all times,” Bluder said before this season. “Not just Caitlin, but our whole team. There’s a lot of pressure on the whole team, right?”
Be normal
Assholes and weirdos will always find a way to (try to) diminish women’s sports, or women’s anything. But the more women athletes achieve, the more pathetic and out-of-touch the haters appear. This was the premise of Clark’s appearance on Saturday Night Live five days after the NCAA championship game.
Clark coolly called out Weekend Update co-host Michael Che for years of cliched quips about women’s sports, followed by a supercut of Che’s weak material. Clark then made him read off new jokes like, “This year Caitlin Clark broke the record for three-pointers in a single season, and I have three pointers for Michael Che: 1) Be, 2) Funnier, 3) Dumbass.”
“Human dignity must be given by people to people,” Vonnegut said in his folk society speech. “… What is human dignity, then? It is the favorable opinion, respectful and uncritical, which we hold of those most familiar to us. … What could be more essential in a pluralistic society like ours than that every citizen see dignity in every other human being everywhere?”
Talent, charisma and success deserve to be treated with dignity, but Bluder’s bunch never needed national recognition to earn the respect of their community. Their performance speaks for itself. The record books have been rewritten, the ESPN docu-series already filmed (the four-part Full Court Press premieres May 11), WNBA tickets selling fast (the season starts May 14), upcoming rivalry matches rebooked to larger arenas, broadcast dates set. By fall, some of the players may even have gold medals to boast of; a U.S. committee is actively assembling a dream team of women’s hoops stars to compete in the Paris Olympics, which open July 26.
Still, Clark and her teammates haven’t rested on their laurels. The Hawks have gone out of their way to build meaningful relationships with fans and create real memories, not just wins.
“At the end of the day, people aren’t going to remember how many points I scored,” Clark said the day before Iowa’s Final Four win over UConn. “… Like my buzzer-beating shots versus whoever. That’s not going to matter to people in the end. I hope they remember how we made them feel, how we brought joy to their lives, how we gave their families something to scream about on the TV on the weekends. I hope all the young boys and girls remember the joy that we played with and how we took 10 seconds of our time to sign their autograph and that inspired them to be whatever they want to be.”
A legacy bigger than points scored or games won, thank you @CaitlinClark22 pic.twitter.com/1Ks4XnE3nv
— University of Iowa (@uiowa) April 10, 2024
Between classes and practice, the players formed bonds with patients at the Stead Family Children’s Hospital over regular visits. It’s all part of making the magic of the Iowa women’s basketball team more meaningful.
“I think it just puts it in perspective how much of an impact we really have on these kids — and how lucky we are to be able to be playing this sport with people we love every day,” Marshall told Iowa Magazine. “It’s something bigger that we’re playing for, and it gives us more of a ‘why.’”
“Coach Bluder always preaches to us that basketball is important, but being a good person is even more important,” added Martin. “Whatever we can do to make an impact on this community that gives us so much — that’s super important for us.”
Emma McClatchey’s Girl Scout troop won the Iowa women’s basketball poster contest in 2003(ish), with a Brady Bunch/“Bluder’s Bunch” design. We celebrated our victory with Carver cones. This article was originally published in Little Village’s April 2024 issue.
