In 1983, I matriculated at the University of Iowa to study computer science. Also in 1983, C. Vivian Stringer was hired as head coach for the University of Iowa women’s basketball program. Both profoundly important, though on vastly different scale (obviously).
The Pre-Stringer Era
The Iowa women’s basketball program started in 1974, but tracking down the early history is difficult (at least online).
Hawkeye Recap has the 1974-75 record as 5-16 and then nothing else until 1987-88 when Iowa finished the season ranked #2 (ranked #1 for eight weeks in early 1988).
The Big Ten Women’s Basketball Media Guide lists Iowa’s 1981-82 record as 8-17 and 1982-83 record as 7-20.
A Daily Iowan article from Stringer’s first season says that the previous season’s home attendance (1982-83) averaged approximately 600 fans.
And Iowa high school girls’ basketball played six-on-six until embracing full-court, five-on-five in 1993, which was contentious because of how popular the six-on-six game was.
The Stringer Era
Dr. Christine Grant was the Women’s Athletic Director at Iowa – women’s athletics remained separate from men’s until the 2000-01 school year when Dr. Grant retired – and, as a separate department from men’s, was able to unilaterally decide to focus on women’s basketball. Hiring String in April 1983 was the best recruiting job I ever did in my life.
[Ironically and it’s-about-time, Beth Goetz was just named Iowa’s athletic director, encompassing both men’s and women’s athletics.]
Stringer’s first freshmen recruiting class was large and impactful: Wisconsin Miss Basketball Tammy McKay and teammate Tricia Blair from McFarland, WI; Lynn Kennedy and Lisa Long from Newark, NJ; and Iowa Miss Basketball Lisa Becker from Cedar Rapids, IA. And I knew them, as we all lived in Slater Hall that year.
[I do not know who committed to Iowa before Stringer was hired, but it’s unlikely that Iowa women’s basketball recruited much in New Jersey before her hire, both due to distances and the state’s racial makeup, 97.4% white in 1980.]
I attended the season-opening game on November 28, 1983, a two-point loss against 17th-ranked Drake Bulldogs. More exciting was that over 3000 fans attended, five times the 1982-83 season average attendance. The team and String got their first win three nights later by crushing the University of Northern Iowa Panthers. And the transformation was on: an immediate 10-win improvement over the previous season and a better record than the men’s team.
The 1984 recruiting class included Michelle Edwards from Boston, a future Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductee. [And I won’t go into details about the party happening on the players’ floor when Edwards was brought up on a recruiting visit!]
The successes didn’t stop there: Stringer had 1 losing season in 12 while at Iowa (her last), winning 76% of her games, and her teams appeared in 9 NCAA tournaments appearances and their first Women’s Final Four appearance in 1993. And on February 3, 1985, a then all-time attendance record of 22,157 attended a regular season game against Ohio State: at 143% of max capacity of Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the fire marshall insisting that it never happen again. Almost 40 years later, the attendance is still top-10 for regular season games.
[I missed the game as I was visiting an out-of-town girlfriend. Bad decision.]
Unfortunately, Stringer’s husband William died just before the 1992-93 Final Four season, and reportedly it became too painful to remain in Iowa City. She has also stated she wanted her sons to be more exposed to African-American culture, which was difficult in Iowa. She resigned after the 1994-95 season to take over the Rutgers women’s program, then a member of the Big East Conference.
The Post-Stringer Era
After the Angie Lee interregnum (5 seasons, 84-60 overall/50-30 conference record), it’s been the Lisa Bluder Era since her hire prior to the 2000-01 season. One could argue that that Bluder’s winning percentage (67% winning percentage) and consistency within Big Ten isn’t at Stringer’s level, but don’t believe it’s apple-to-apple comparison: women’s basketball has become a revenue sport, the Big Ten is larger, and competitiveness across the board has gone up. Even Stringer didn’t maintain the same level at Rutgers.
Of course, Iowa returned to the Women’s Final Four in 2022-23 with a semifinal victory against South Carolina before losing to LSU in the final. The 2023-24 season has started off better than 2022-23, with generational-player Caitlin Clark and perhaps a better supporting cast making another deep tournament run feasible.
As an outsider, Bluder appears to run a clean, stable and female-positive program that players love. She allowed Ava Jones to keep her scholarship whether or not returns to competitive basketball and plays for Iowa. I know the mother of a current player from our home town, and she has positive things to say as well. I fully expect Bluder to coach at Iowa until she retires, likely a Hall of Fame coach with over 800 wins and counting.
Vivian Stringer first returned to Iowa City in 2005 for an pre-season tournament, and, starting with the 2015-16 season, regularly as Rutgers joined the Big Ten. She has since retired and no longer coaches Rutgers.
And finally, my wife and I regularly attend – and enjoy – women’s basketball games, whether in Iowa City, at home at the University of Minnesota‘s Williams Arena, and earlier this season in Madison. I can’t wait for this year’s Big Ten Tournament at Target Center!
Image Credits
- “Iowa Hawkeyes B1G champions (52757660611)” by John Mac is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
