PUBLISHER’S COLUMN: THE CLARK FACTOR
Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes face Connecticut in the second of two NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Elite Eight games tonight. Ahead of tonight’s scheduled 8 p.m. tip, here is what Courier Publisher Jeremy Waltner had to say in his weekly column about the superstar who wears No. 22.
I have long been a sports fan, not for the immediate thrill of a heart-stopping win or the emotional drama of a deconstructing loss, but for the bigger-picture stories that go along with it all.
When Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mark in the mile 70 years ago, it wasn’t just an unthinkable record — it set a new training standard for distance runners around the world.
When U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists on the Olympic podium during the 1968 Games in Mexico City, it wasn’t just a statement on human rights — it became a defining image that represents an ongoing struggle rooted in systemic racism.
And when, on Sept. 21, 2001, the New York Mets hosted the Atlanta Braves in the first major sporting event since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, it wasn’t just a comeback story — it was a statement heard ’round the world.
I’m not saying that the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament should be included in the same conversation as the aforementioned impact stories (and others like them), but I can’t help but wonder: Are we seeing another watershed moment developing before our very eyes?
March Madness, the big college basketball tournament that is among the most anticipated sports event of the year, has hit another gear thanks to the media attention cast on the most dominant players in the women’s game — namely Caitlin Clark.
The Iowa senior point guard, who rose to prominence by leading the Hawkeyes to the national title game a year ago, has become a once-in-a-generation star and, by association, has cast the media spotlight on other players who are leaders on their own teams — like UConn junior Paige Bueckers, LSU junior Angel Reese and USC freshmen JuJu Watkins. All four were featured in this past Monday’s Elite Eight that was one of the biggest days ever for women’s athletics; in fact, the Iowa/LSU clash early Monday evening was the most-watched women’s college basketball game in history, drawing 12.3 million viewers as reported by ESPN, according to Nielsen. And tickets on the secondary market for the women’s Final Four are reportedly selling for more than the men’s Final Four — unheard of even a few years ago.
The media picks and chooses what it reports on at all levels, from small community news outlets like The Courier to giant juggernauts like the Washington Post. But journalists can’t not cover what Caitlin Clark has done for women’s college basketball — from ticket buys and jersey sales to watercooler buzz to the undeniable “wow factor” with which she plays. In fact (and I’ve thought about this a lot), I can only come up with one other player who has had that kind of impact: Michael Jordan.
It’s much too early to tell what kind of long-term impact the WNBA-bound superstar will have on athletics as a whole, but given all that has happened, it appears that she is writing one of the sweetest chapters, not just in the history of women’s college basketball, but in the history of sports.
Jeremy Waltner is husband to Stacey and Dad to Ella & Oliver, who was thrilled to watch Clark play in person in the Big Ten Tournament at the Target Center last month.
