By Todd Brommelkamp/1600 ESPN
Caitlin Clark poses for photos with members of the Brazilian National team after Sunday’s WNBA exhibition game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena (Photo by Mark Woodley/KWWL TV)
IOWA CITY – On a sun-splashed Sunday afternoon, dozens of young women spread across the fields of Iowa’s City’s Napoleon Park softball complex for a USSSA tournament. On a normal weekend day in early May in a normal sleepy college town, it would pass for a big event.
There was nothing normal about Sunday and you didn’t have to look far for reminders as to why this was no ordinary day in Big Ten country.
“Go Indiana Fever!!!” read the last line of the daily menu posted on the park’s concession stand. Visible through a tiny window, a woman clad in an Indiana Fever t-shirt doled out Sour Patch Kids and Diet Cokes to kids who had shaken their parent down for cash.
Three-and-a-half miles away, hundreds of fans lined up hours in advance outside Carver-Hawkeye Arena waiting to get inside to witness Caitlin Clark’s return to the University of Iowa and the building in which she broke the all-time women’s college basketball scoring record.
They would not go home disappointed.
Clark, who sat out the Fever’s first preseason game with a leg injury, scored 16 points as the visitors from the WNBA dispatched the Brazilian Women’s National squad, 108-44.
The explosion of cheers as the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year scored the first points of the game on a three-pointer were just a taste of what was to come Sunday. The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman registered the noise level inside the arena at 117 decibels.
But it was Clark’s last bucket of the afternoon that nearly blew the windows out of Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Late in the third quarter she pulled up from behind the iconic No. 22 emblem on the CHA court that marks the spot where she broke the Division I women’s scoring record a little over one year ago.
The ball ripped through the net.
Carver erupted.
Shortly after, as the in-game camera focused on Clark seated on the Fever bench, it was clear her day was done. Clark flashed a broad smile and made her signature heart gesture before flailing her arms in an attempt to pump up the noise level.
It wasn’t necessary.
Sunday’s game, the first of its kind in Iowa City involving a WNBA team, was a hit from the moment tickets went on sale and sold out in under an hour.
Three hours before tipoff the parking lots surrounding Carver-Hawkeye Arena were filled with a mix of black-and-gold clad Iowa fans and Fever fans dressed head to toe in red, blue and yellow who had come from all over to see Clark and her teammates romp to an easy victory en route to the season-opener later this month. Some seemed to be treating the visit the way religious pilgrims do. For others the vibe was more ‘football tailgate’ as they waited for doors to open.
“Did you get her?” an older woman asked a little girl clutching a red No. 22 Fever jersey.
Shaking, the girl held up her jersey with Clark’s autograph scrawled across the first numeral on the back.
Many others did not. Such is the burden of being perhaps the most popular female athlete in the world. Not everyone can go away happy.
“I don’t care where you go, but you can’t stay here,” bellowed an exasperated Iowa official in a half-hearted attempt at crowd control.
Clark returned to the court after the building had emptied out, posing for photos with her former Iowa coaches at mid-court. A duo of Brazilian players approached her, one asked Clark to sign her sneaker. Both got pictures taken.
Five hours later, no decibel readings were needed. The only noise insider Carver-Hawkeye Arena came from arena staff tearing down equipment and TV anchors recording (and re-recording) standups for the 10 PM local broadcasts back in Indianapolis.
It was back to normal in Iowa City Monday morning. Elvis has left the building.
