Coach Bluder and Team On March 3, 2024, Iowa Hawkeye, Caitlyn Clark, broke Pistol Pete Maravitch’s NCAA scoring record, meaning she scored higher than any woman or man. Like the rest of the country I was wrapped up in the excitement of it all, as an Iowa native, I had special pride. However, it brought back a lot of memories, painful ones and gave me a great deal of vindication. I wrote this piece in response to the country’s excitement and how my own, and women’s history intertwined with it all. The picture was taken women the Hawkeye women attracted 55,646 paying fans for an exhibition game with DePaul. Caitlyn Clark is now doing a commercial for Gatorade where she tells girls, “If I can get 55,000, you can get 56,000”.
- Note: Iowa and NC State are in the Final Four since I wrote this letter. If Iowa beats UConn and NC State beats undefeated South Carolina, they will meet on Sunday the 7th for the National Title.
Dear Coach Bluder and Team,
It is difficult to explain to you and your team what following the Hawkeyes this year means to me but I will try. I will start with your triumph in Kinnick Stadium.
I started going there in the early 1950s with Mom, Dad, and my older brother. I loved it, the history of Nile Kinnick, the cars parked in yards, the marching band, and, oh, yes, the excitement of the cardiac kids, as the team was called in the day.
There was the Iowa Scottish Highlanders Band, a world-renowned drum and bagpipe corps of all women. In those days, Iowa and Texas were the only states with girls’ inter-school basketball, but even then only in the smaller towns. Like every other large university, the marching band was not open to women. Imagine my excitement to see the Highlanders after a world tour cheered by millions, including command performances for the crown heads of Europe just 10 years after WWII. This was all little girls had in those days. They only performed one game a year, but I was so excited as they marched onto the field and so confused when the crowd booed. Yes, booed. I asked why and my brother responded that people wanted to see the band, not dumb girls. (The Pipe and Drum band was opened to boys in 1971, the year before Title IX, and was unfunded in 1981)
As I watched 55,646 people cheering your team playing basketball on a football field, that very one where other women were booed as not belonging, it was an added bonus for me. The Highlanders of that day are now in their mid-to late 80s, and many are probably gone, but I imagine their spirits there being validated by the work that your team does and the adulation that you have earned, and it made my heart soar.
My mother played basketball for T.J. in Counsel Bluffs in 1934, the Woman Athlete of the Year, but in the mid-50s, the tide was turning, and Wilton, where we then lived, took away girls’ basketball even though it was very popular. We were told by Dr. Whetstein, who was the head of the school board that basketball made it harder for girls to have babies. My mother and father said it had more to do with having one gym and wanting more practice time for the boys. The neighboring town of Durant was getting ready to do the same thing, however, my parents owned and ran the newspapers in both towns, my mother wrote a scathing editorial and saved basketball for the girls of Durant due to the outrage Mom’s editorial caused, but it was too late for me, the deed was done in Wilton. It was too late for me and my friends. I was in my 60s before I could tell that story out loud without choking with tears. I cried through A League of Their Own. I hope you have all seen that movie.
I like to think that women of my generation, who were denied so much have paved the way to your well-earned success, without denying how hard you work for all the accolades and attention you get.
1966-67 I lived in Burge Hall when girls (and we couldn’t be women then) had hours. This meant that we all had to be in the dorm by 10 on weeknights and 12 on Friday, 1 on Saturday. We were allowed less time to be in the library because boys had no hours. We were punished if we came in a minute late. This resulted in something we all joked about and feared. Imagine the chaos with hundreds of girls being returned after dates at the same time. It was called the Passion Line. There were also small groups of boys who went for the purpose of blocking our way into the dorm so that we would get into trouble. We grumbled about having hours, but what could we do?
During one middle-of-the-night fire drill, we spontaneously decided not to return and defied authorities, chanting, “No more hours”. The whole thing lasted only 10 minutes or so, but a small part of what was to happen in the next few years led to Title IX, which I am sure you all know about. Part of me still grieves that we didn’t have the opportunity for sports, but I am so happy for any little thing I did to make things possible for my granddaughter who plays field hockey and is, at 13, being recruited as a possible Olympic skier and for you and your team.
I am so proud of my granddaughter and I want you to know just how much joy you put in the heart of her grandmother, who had your sport ripped away from her in the fifth grade because someone didn’t think it was good for her health, but really wanted more practice time for the boys.
Thank you so much,
Proud to Be an Iowan at Heart,
Margo Arrowsmith
PS. You must know that in the 1950s and 60s, girls’ basketball was two-court. Girls were not allowed to play full court because, unlike you women, they were not considered strong enough to play full court. On my Mother’s Day, they had to play THREE COURTS for the same reason, even though Mom also played volleyball with a two-person team on wooden floors, not sand. Go figure.
* Also know that while I have lived in Raleigh, North Carolina for 30 years and have cheered the Wolfpack for many years at Reynolds Colosseum, I note they are just two rankings behind you this year, if you play them in the NCAA tournament, I will be cheering the Hawkeyes at that game.