By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – My next door neighbor is a retired nurse who enjoys gardening and making quilts, and who up until about two years ago, couldn’t have cared less about the Iowa women’s basketball team, or about sports in general.

She has lived in Iowa City for most of her adult life, but was never that interested in anything related to Hawkeye athletics until she started hearing about this once-in-a-lifetime player named Caitlin Clark.

It was during Clark’s junior season in 2022-23 when my neighbor started paying attention to the Iowa women’s basketball team, and now my neighbor like so many other people from Iowa and beyond, is fascinated with Caitlin Clark.

I was reminded of that when I reached out to my neighbor via a text message at 8:17 p.m. this past Sunday.

She was at her friend’s house watching a recorded version of the exhibition game between the Indiana Fever and the Brazilian National Team at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

My neighbor was unable to attend the game in person on Sunday, and she wasn’t able to watch it live on television.

But that still didn’t stop her from getting her Caitlin Clark fix.

My neighbor didn’t care that the game was a mismatch.

She just wanted to watch Caitlin Clark do Caitlin Clark things, and the 6-foot Clark, who is preparing for her second season with the Fever, seized the moment in extraordinary fashion as she so often does.

Clark’s logo three from approximately 36 feet is something fans will remember forever, because for one, it was from 36 feet, and because it was near the spot on the court where Clark had made a three to set the NCAA’s all-time scoring record as a Hawkeye senior in 2024.

It was vintage Caitlin Clark in how she made what is next to impossible for most to pull off look easy.

Clark arrived at Iowa during the global pandemic in 2020, and ironically, she played her freshman season as a Hawkeye in arenas that were mostly empty.

By the end of her junior season, fans were lining up to watch Caitlin Clark play in packed arenas, even on the road.

Her popularity has continued to soar to where a case could be made that Caitlin Clark is the most popular athlete in all of sports right now, at least in the United States.

Dallas Jones covered this past Sunday’s exhibition game for Hawk Fanatic and he arrived at Carver-Hawkeye Arena about four hours before the 3 p.m. tip-off, because like so many others, he couldn’t wait to get there and soak it all in.

There were fans tailgating in the parking lot near Carver-Hawkeye Arena hours before the tip-off.

It was sort of like an Iowa football game in that it was an event.

Clark’s fans probably would pack Carver-Hawkeye Arena just to watch her ride a stationary bike for two hours.

West Des Moines Dowling, which is my alma mater, used to be known as a high school football power, and deservedly so considering it’s long-standing success.

But now Dowling is known for being Caitlin Clark’s high school alma mater more than anything else.

Clark has energized the Hawkeye fan base like no other student-athlete has before.

As great and as popular as Tim Dwight was as a Hawkeye football player, and as a track star, he wasn’t nearly as popular as Caitlin Clark was as a Hawkeye.

That isn’t a knock against Dwight because he was certainly a fan favorite as a homegrown Hawkeye legend from Iowa City.

Caitlin Clark has just taken being popular to a whole new level, and to a level that would be hard to believe if it weren’t happening right before our adoring eyes.

With her incredible reach and with her growing influence and willingness to interact with fans, Clark is helping women’s basketball evolve as a sport and as a source of entertainment.

And if you don’t believe me, just ask my neighbor.