116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Plenty of non-Iowans in Cleveland are on Hawkeyes’ side in the Final Four
One pair of basketball-loving friends have never even been to Iowa. It just doesn’t matter when comes to rooting for Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeyes.
Apr. 5, 2024 3:40 pm, Updated: Apr. 6, 2024 8:12 am
CLEVELAND — Mackenzie Miller of Denver and Matt Stallard of Columbus, Ohio, are friends who have never been to the University of Iowa.
They’ve never been in Iowa, period.
They were wearing Hawkeyes garb in a downtown Cleveland pub called The Clevelander Friday afternoon, and were thrilled about holding tickets to see the Hawkeyes women’s basketball team play Connecticut late Friday night.
“I grew up in Cleveland, grew up on basketball,” Miller said. “This is just not what women’s sports were like when I was a kid.
“I remember seeing YouTube videos years ago of Caitlin Clark in high school, Paige (Bueckers) in high school. It’s just been fun to watch them grow up, watch their careers and see where they’re at now.”
Stallard sent Miller videos of the Hawkeyes’ games when Clark was a freshman.
“He said ‘You need to watch this girl.’ I started watching Iowa and from then on haven’t stopped watching,” Miller said.
They bought Final Four tickets in January, hoping Iowa would be among the last four teams standing.
“We started watching Iowa for Caitlin and kind of fell in love with the whole team,” Miller said.
Vickie Fulkerson of New London, Conn., didn’t want to be ratted out for this in her home state, but surely Huskies fans will understand someone buying a Clark Nike “This was never a long shot” T-shirt for a young girl.
Fulkerson got the shirt at Rally House. That’s a store selling sports-related garb just a short walk from Final Four site Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and the Cleveland Guardians’ Progressive Stadium. A display of Iowa shirts and caps were at the front of the store.
The $35 item was for the daughter of a friend, you see.
Fulkerson has been a sports reporter for The Day daily newspaper in New London for 34 years. She recently became the paper’s sports editor.
This is the 12th of Connecticut’s 23 women’s Final Fours that she has covered.
“I know it’s all about the game,” Fulkerson said, “but this one seems so much more than a game.”
Wally Warren of Cleveland said the people from Iowa he sold food to on Friday “were nice.”
Warren set up shop Friday a couple blocks from the arena, selling hot dogs, Italian sausages, Polish sausages and gyros not only to people on foot, but drivers who pulled up to his corner. He’s been doing for two decades. Someone drove up, got a chili dog, and added a soda to his tab. The drink cost just a dollar. Only a dollar!
“That’s why I’ve had to do this for two decades,” Warren moaned.
He didn’t seem clued into Friday’s Iowa-UConn matchup at first, but it turned out he knew more than he originally was sharing.
“I want Iowa to win tonight,” Warren finally admitted. “I want her to go out in style.
“I was watching the game Monday while I was bowling. Boy, that LSU coach (Kim Mulkey) was mad.”
He said “It would be better if Ohio State was playing Iowa, a rematch of their two games.” But the Buckeyes aren’t here.
“We got knocked out, I guess,” he rued.
Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com
Daily Newsletters