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Iowa women's basketball again brings 'the best out in everyone' at end-of-year celebration
UI announces it will retire Caitlin Clark’s No. 22
IOWA CITY — Barbara Wilson summed up Iowa fans’ love of the 2023-24 women’s basketball team perfectly in front of 8,000-plus fans at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
“Simply, you bring the best out in everyone,” the University of Iowa president said to the team at Wednesday’s end-of-season celebration. “Countless people want to be like you; they want to be around you.”
It also was clear on a night when Athletics Director Beth Goetz announced plans to retire Caitlin Clark’s No. 22 — what will be only the third retired number in program history — that Iowa fans adore not only Clark, but the entire national runner-up Iowa women’s basketball team.
One of the bigger cheers on Wednesday evening came when Goetz told senior captain Kate Martin, who has coaching ambitions, there is an office open “when you’re ready for me to hire you.”
Allison Stevenson, a relatively new women’s basketball fan from Mason City who was at the celebration, said she loves “watching them playing together, but it’s more than just them playing.”
“They’re really positive role models,” Stevenson said. “They appear to be best friends on the court, off the court. What they’ve done to elevate not only women’s basketball, but women’s sports.”
Iowa’s Kate Martin shares a moment with Iowa’s Gabbie Marshall during Iowa’s season-end celebration at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Wednesday. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder talks about the Hawkeye fans during the Iowa women’s basketball team’s season-end celebration at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Wednesday. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Iowa’s Caitlin Clark smiles during the Iowa women’s basketball team’s season-end celebration at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Wednesday. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
A young Hawkeye fan looks around during the Iowa women’s basketball team’s season-end celebration at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Wednesday. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Iowa senior players laugh together during the Iowa women’s basketball team’s season-end celebration at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Wednesday. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Thousands of fans gather around the court to get autographs from the women’s basketball team during Iowa’s season-end celebration at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Wednesday. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Streamers fly as the women’s basketball team takes a photo together during Iowa’s season-end celebration at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Wednesday. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder talks about the fans during the Iowa women’s basketball team’s season-end celebration at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Wednesday. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Iowa’s Caitlin Clark sings autographs during the Iowa women’s basketball team’s season-end celebration at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Wednesday. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Iowa’s Caitlin Clark signs a poster for a fan during the Iowa women’s basketball team’s season-end celebration at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Wednesday. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Iowa’s Kate Martin signs autographs for fans during the Iowa women’s basketball team’s season-end celebration at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Wednesday. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Nate Johnson, 42 of Urbana, brought his two boys to Wednesday’s event. One boy’s favorite Hawkeye is Gabbie Marshall, and the other’s is Clark.
Johnson wanted to show his two children that “it’s important to have role models, to appreciate those role models, to honor those role models and hopefully grow the next generation who will be role models.”
“Seeing how Caitlin always takes time for the kids is important,” Johnson said of Iowa’s star player, who stayed several minutes after the program was over to sign as many autographs as possible. “They need to see that, if they make it to that level, it’s important to engage with the young ones.”
Stevenson went to “almost all of” Iowa’s 2023-24 games, although her husband Kent is quick to note “none of them were regular price.”
“Some people go to Puerto Vallarta for spring break,” said Stevenson, who held a sign offering snacks to Clark’s father in exchange for Clark’s autograph. “We spent our money and came to Carver-Hawkeye.”
The Stevenson couple, who has grandchildren in Cedar Rapids, left Cedar Rapids at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday morning and drove to Cleveland for the national championship.
“It was spontaneous — the most spontaneous thing we’ve done in the 40 years we’ve been married together,” Kent Stevenson chimed in.
Theresa Hobbs, from Iowa City, has similarly been dedicated this season after not being much of a women’s basketball fan before the last two years.
“The university was giving away free tickets last year for employees, so I took them up on it,” Hobbs said. “This year, we ended up getting season tickets. … It was the team; it was fun to watch.”
Clark will be gone — presumably to the Indiana Fever, which has the first pick in next week’s WNBA Draft — but fans like Hobbs, Johnson and the Stevenson couple aren’t going anywhere.
“If we can even get in the door, we’ll definitely go to several (games),” Johnson said.
Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com
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