As Caitlin Clark stars in Final Four, Iowa fans also embrace supporting cast

DALLAS — Condra Allred of Cedar Rapids received news from her husband last Sunday that any Iowa women’s basketball fan would envy.

“My husband bought two tickets and said, ‘If we lose, I’ll sell them, but we’re going to win,’” said Allred, an elementary school principal, in Dallas before Iowa’s 77-73 win over South Carolina Friday night.

Ashley Rogers, of Altoona, didn’t take long to make plans either.

“As soon as they won, we were like we got to go,” Rogers said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I’m not missing it.”

Even after waiting until the last second in hopes of the price dropping, it wasn’t a cheap visit. Rogers and Alyssa Hills, also of Altoona, “don’t know if we even want to say” how much the tickets cost.

“Let’s say we spent a pretty penny on it,” Rogers said.

All three fans, despite being part of two different groups from two different parts of the state, had a few things in common.

They all made the double-digit-hour drive to Dallas.

They also all were wearing T-shirts made by Des Moines-based Raygun that support athletes financially via name, image and likeness.

Allred had Hannah Stuelke’s “Happy like Hannah” T-shirt, and Rogers and Hills had Gabbie Marshall and Monika Czinano T-shirts.

On a team with the spotlight shining on star guard Caitlin Clark and her 40-plus-point performances, the sight in Dallas ahead of Friday’s Final Four game was symbolic of how popular the rest of the Hawkeyes are.

Allred said Stuelke is probably her favorite Hawkeye.

“But I love them all,” said Allred, who estimated she has “probably 10” different Iowa women’s basketball Raygun shirts.

Clark, meanwhile, is Rogers’ favorite player, but she also enjoys the entire team’s cohesion.

“Even though Caitlin has the spotlight on her, they just play and they mesh so well together,” Rogers said. “And when she’s not playing well, everyone else plays well.”

Clark, unlike several of her teammates, does not have any Raygun shirts — she already has an NIL deal with Nike, among many others — which makes the Raygun sales especially telling.

“So many people in the state can name almost all of the starters on the Iowa women's basketball team,” said Mike Draper, the founder of Raygun.

Iowa women’s basketball is far from the only team to have athletes with Raygun NIL deals.

Iowa football and men’s basketball players also have Raygun shirts, as do athletes from Nebraska, Iowa State, Drake and other teams.

But Raygun has not had “any team in any sport” that reached the popularity Iowa women’s basketball has reached this year.

“This is kind of blowing Iowa football out of the water,” Draper said.

Draper noticed sales “really picking up” at the start of the NCAA Tournament.

“The last two weeks, it’s taken off like a rocket, especially with so many of the other players becoming household names,” Draper said.

Fans have been the first to come up with some of the ideas. Other times, athletes already have a slogan in mind.

Kate Martin, for example, had already been referred to as “the glue” in news conferences.

Martin, Draper said, “wanted the shirt to look like a dictionary definition of Kate Martin being the glue.”

“That’s the first time we’ve had so much art direction from a player,” Draper said.

The tournament run has inspired some new ideas.

Marshall, one of Iowa’s sharpshooting guards, caught headlines after Georgia Coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson had trouble thinking of her name in a news conference.

“Obviously the cute little one with the eyes, who is that?” Abrahamson-Henderson asked.

“They all have eyes,” the moderator quipped.

“Cute eyes, pretty eyes,” Abrahamson-Henderson said before a TV reporter said Marshall’s name. “See, women know that.”

As the comments went viral on social media, Draper’s team immediately saw the T-shirt potential of Abrahamson-Henderson’s comments.

“As soon as we saw the Georgia quote, we reached out to Gabbie to see if she wanted to do something like that onto a shirt,” Draper said.

Now, Iowa fans like Allred will have one more chance to wear their Gabbie Marshall or Hannah Stuelke shirts. Or Monika Czinano shirts. Or Kate Martin shirts.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com