Should we crown Caitlin Clark as the Queen of Iowa?

     

Iowa's Caitlin Clark, in action earlier in 2023.
Photo originally appeared in the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

    The last few weeks have been a blast watching Caitlin Clark and the terrific Hawkeye women's basketball team win game after game until reaching the NCAA finals.

    The highlight was the smack-down on March 31 when the Hawks bested undefeated South Carolina 77-73 in the NCAA Final Four.

    Most of blog readers who know me realize I'm a devoted Iowa State fan. That's where I went to college and that's an obvious place for my first loyalties.

    That said, the Iowa women's team had us mesmerized in 2023.  

    Credit Clark and the entire team for pulling most of the state of Iowa -- and people from across the nation -- into the aura of women's sports.

    Women have a long history of sports participation in Iowa. But it takes a talent like Clark to publicize that across the United States.

    I get a kick out of her chutzpa, showing her self-confidence to one and all. She also backs up what she does. But as my husband, Steve, pointed out, it drives the other team members crazy. (Note: Georgia!)

    Clark joins a long list of talented basketball players from this state. Start with Denise Long, of Whitten, Iowa, who was famous when I moved to Iowa in 1969. Ditto Deb Coates, of Mediapolis. That was during the six-on-six era. 

    More recently there's Ashley Joens, of Iowa State. She prepped at City High, Iowa City, while Clark was at West Des Moines Dowling.

    I love that the players are on Iowa university teams and that they actually were raised in the state.

    Funny story: Iowa played Indiana in the last regular-season game. The Hoosiers had won the Big 10 already, but Carver Hawkeye arena was sold out for the match-up. 

    We were in Biloxi, Miss., at the time and arranged to watch the Hawks at a sports bar with our neighbors, who were also vacationing in Biloxi. We four Iowans found a table in front of the TV and had such a great time, hollering every time the Hawks scored, etc. When Clark hit that off-balance three-point buzzer-beater (1.5 seconds on the clock) we all jumped up and yelled at the 86-85 victory. Biloxi residents just stared at our crazy enthusiasm.

    Clark was a joy to watch and although this blog is a little late to publicly note her achievements, it's sincere.

    We were lucky to have the talent from Iowa, stay in Iowa, and make our state better known to sports fans. 

    The Hawkeyes also made life much more bearable during the coldest months of the year.