Tom Arnold is among the rarest of Iowans, having survived both the Razzie Awards and the kill floor at Hormel. There’s a generation of us who may have first met him via Roseanne, but the man has spent decades showing up in wonderful places: Austin Powers, True Lies, The Simpsons, The Best Damn Sports Show […]
Lisa Bluder
Long before a Final Four, George’s has been the go-to spot to watch Iowa women’s basketball
Three blocks from the bar colony of downtown Iowa City sits the Northside Market, a neighborhood some of the quieter and more niche businesses call home. There’s Dirty John’s Grocery, the endless kitsch of Artifacts and the town’s only falafel joint, Oasis. There is also a little place called George’s Buffet. A slender two-story frame […]
After a career coaching women’s basketball in the state of Iowa, Lisa Bluder is retiring, handing the Hawks over to Jan Jensen
It’s been more than a month since the final buzzer sounded in the NCAA championship game, but Monday proved a pivotal day for the future of women’s basketball at the University of Iowa. First, Lisa Bluder announced her retirement after 24 years as head coach of the Hawkeyes. Then, UI Athletics announced associate coach Jan […]
When the Iowa women’s basketball team packed Carver — in 1985
For most of her 62 years, “nobody cared about women’s basketball,” Lisa Bluder has said, especially when compared to the phenomenon it is today. Athletic scholarships were practically nonexistent before 1972. Attendance could range from a few dozen to a few hundred. Uniforms and facilities were often less than ideal. But the sport still had […]
While taking the world by storm, Lisa Bluder’s team has given Iowans some precious pride of place
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 […]
The Long game: A brief history of the six-on-six era of women’s basketball
More than 50 years before number 22 of the Iowa Hawkeyes was amazing basketball fans and creating new ones, number 55 on the girls basketball team of Union-Whitten High School in Harden County was doing the same. The six-on-six era of girls basketball in Iowa had a lot of dynamic players and high scorers, but […]

