Caitlin Clark's legacy only beginning to burgeon with Iowa jersey retirementCaitlin Clark's legacy only beginning to burgeon with Iowa jersey retirement
'You’ve showed people why it’s wise to invest in women’s sports. Why it’s wise to invest in women.'
IOWA CITY, Iowa — For two hours on a Sunday afternoon, she was nothing more than a women’s basketball fan taking in a generational talent and watching her alma mater pull off a top-five upset.
Caitlin Clark bounced up when Iowa players launched 3-point attempts, gestured furiously for travel calls and voiced irritation at perceived missed fouls. When Iowa went up 16-1 on No. 4 USC and national player of the year contender JuJu Watkins late in the first quarter, the entire Clark contingent was up and roaring with the sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd.
By the time the Hawkeyes pulled off a signature 76-69 Big Ten victory, the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer calmly flashed a smile in the stands while students stormed the court. Clark slid on a varsity jacket with emblems of her high school, college and professional teams to bracket a silver necklace outlining the state of Iowa. When the dust settled, she joined her alumna, flanked by security, to celebrate.
No one else in the arena moved. For two hours on a Sunday afternoon, they ate up an unexpected dessert with wandering eyes toward Clark, their hometown hero. They tapped the shutter on their phones, hoping for their own generational talent to appear in the background. For many, it was why they were here. Or, why they were watching a jersey retirement ceremony at home on national television.
Clark returned to Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the first time since she was a player to see her jersey lifted to the rafters between Megan Gustafson and the banners for the 2023 and 2024 national championship runner-up teams she helmed. The crowd first filled this house for her and made it roar again as if she were shooting from the Clark 22 logo installed where she broke the scoring record.
“It’s fun for me to come back and just say thank you to everybody that poured so much into me and allowed me to be great,” Clark said ahead of the ceremony. “Whether that’s the social media people, whether that’s the marketing team, whoever it is that made me look really good at times. None of this happens without all those people pouring themselves into our team and our program every single day.”
Former teammates Kate Martincaitlin
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