Hoops Are Different These Days
The explosion of interest in women’s college basketball these days, driven in great part by the Iowa Hawkeyes, is a far cry from the days when I was a college student in Iowa City.
Back then, in the early 1980s, Iowa high schools still played the six-on-six game for females. The change to allow schools to opt for five-on-five did not come until the 1984-1985 season.
And back then, not all teams in the Big Ten fielded women’s teams. Iowa did, but the team’s record was not very good. I very clearly recall it, because I was the play-by-play broadcaster for Iowa women’s basketball in the 1982-1983 season. The games were on the student station, and I’m not sure the signal reached all of Iowa City. The team had not won a conference game in some years, and as my luck would have it, the one weekend I took off from calling the game for a family event back home was the one where they broke the streak and won. They finished 7-20 that season, 2-16 in the conference.
They did set a single-game attendance record that season…624 fans in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Usually, about 200 people came to the games. And to cut down on clean up, fans were only allowed to sit in a certain section behind the teams. Even then, when a player was at the free throw line, I had to continue my play-by-play in a whisper like at a golf course, because otherwise, fans would literally turn around and “shoosh” my broadcast partner Alan Thompson and I to be quiet.
Things changed quickly in Iowa City the next season, when Vivian Stringer came to town…a winning record in the conference and overall. And now, exactly 40 years later, we see sold out arenas, scalpers getting top money for tickets, TV ratings far outpacing those for men’s games…and yes, Iowa is in the middle of it.
So here’s to the Hawkeyes, then and now…and good luck in the Sweet Sixteen and beyond.
