50 Iowa moments since Title IX: Iowa softball goes to third straight Women’s College World Series in 1997

Editor’s note: This is 38th in a series counting down the Top 50 moments in Iowa Hawkeyes women’s athletics history in the 50 days leading up to the 50th anniversary of Title IX in June.

Iowa softball had its first taste of the Women’s College World Series in 1995, but the team wanted more.

“Once you experience what it’s like to do something like that, there was no doubt in their mind that we were going to go back again and again,” now-retired Iowa coach Gayle Blevins said.

Blevins’ team was right. The Hawkeyes went back to the WCWS again and again in 1996 and 1997.

Along with marking the third consecutive WCWS trip, Iowa’s 1997 season set the program record for most regular-season wins with 52 — a record that still stands today.

The 1997 team did not lose a Big Ten game until the conference tournament, easing through the regular-season schedule. Iowa often overpowered opponents, finishing one series with a 28-5 run advantage and another with a 16-2 advantage.

After a rough patch in the Big Ten tournament — the Hawkeyes lost twice to Michigan — Iowa went 3-0 in the NCAA regionals to go back to the WCWS.

Iowa first avenged its Big Ten tournament losses with a WCWS win over Michigan before losing to Washington and Fresno State.

The three consecutive trips to the WCWS put the Hawkeyes in an elite tier of college softball in 1997.

Only two other teams at the time — Arizona and UCLA — had active streaks of three or more WCWS appearances, and the NCAA later vacated UCLA’s 1995 participation.

The momentum from the 1995-97 seasons were apparent for the rest of Blevins’ tenure in Iowa City. It was the start of a 16-year stretch with 13 NCAA tournament appearances until Blevins’ retirement in 2010.

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