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 moments of mainstream success — brief but sure signs women’s hoops would someday arrive — thanks to true believers like C. Vivian Stringer.
While attending high school in Edenborn, Pennsylvania in the ’60s, Stringer successfully sued for the right to join the cheerleading team, demonstrating that she was discriminated against for being African American. She attended Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, competing on the basketball team — and softball, volleyball and field hockey teams.
Almost as soon as she arrived as Iowa’s new head coach in 1983, Stringer put the fledgling women’s basketball program on the map. Standout Hawkeyes from her era include Lisa Becker, Michelle “Ice” Edwards, Shanda Berry, Jolette Law and Franthea Price.
In 1995, Stringer accepted a job at Rutgers, where she would cement her legacy as one of the winningest coaches in women’s basketball history (with an overall record of 1,055-426, or .712). But not before making history at Iowa.
Stringer envisioned a sell-out crowd for the Hawkeyes’ Feb. 3, 1985 home game against Ohio State. And she wanted to utilize the power of the UI marketing department to make it happen.
“I’m a Pisces,” she allegedly told Iowa Athletic Director Bump Elliott. “I dream. And I work very hard to make my dreams become realities.”
Stringer filmed local commercials urging fans to turn out and pack Carver Hawkeye Arena. In a 2010 retrospective in the Gazette, Bluder recalled seeing the ads frequently while still a coach at Ambrose.
The campaign was a wild, almost criminal success: two hours before the 1:30 p.m. tip-off, cars were backed up to I-80. Officially, 14,821 paid for tickets, but kids were granted free admission and turned out in droves. The turnstile at Carver counted 22,157 — far more than the 15,500 seats could accommodate, or the fire marshal advised. By the time the Hawks emerged from the tunnel, the sound was deafening. If you’ve attended a game during the Clark era, you know it well.
Both head coaches beamed as they shook hands, Stringer with tears on her cheeks. “I wish I could turn out the lights and freeze that moment in time,” she told the Gazette.
“It was a very, very special day for our program and our state,” said Christine Grant, former UI director of women’s athletics — despite the fact she got an official reprimand for breaking fire code. “So many said that people weren’t interested in women’s basketball, and this proved them absolutely wrong.”
Iowa lost the game to OSU, 56-47, but that was practically irrelevant. The game broke the attendance record for a women’s college basketball game — a record the Iowa women would set again nearly 40 years later during the Crossover at Kinnick charity scrimmage match. On Oct. 15, 2023, 55,646 bought tickets to see Bluder’s team beat DePaul, 94-72, on the football team’s turf.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s May 2024 issue.
