College basketball star Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes became the all-time leading scorer for both women and men in NCAA Division I history Sunday afternoon when she made a single free throw to end the second quarter against Ohio State. With that ice cold bucket, she has passed the mark of 3,667 points that LSU’s Pete Maravich set in 1970, two years before the passage of Title IX.
Clark’s innate showmanship and ability to amuse is one of the reasons she’s the most recognizable person in college athletics.
Clark’s innate showmanship and ability to amuse (and sometimes frustrate) crowds of thousands, as Maravich himself did, is one of the reasons she’s the most recognizable person in college athletics.
When Clark broke Kelsey Plum’s NCAA women’s college basketball record of 3,527 points on Feb. 15, the Iowa superstar said she did it the only way she could. She received a pass from teammate Gabbie Marshall, dribbled once, crossed over her defender, and launched a three from the sponsor’s logo at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
“You all knew I was going to shoot a logo three for the record, c’mon now,” she told reporters after the game.
On Wednesday, Clark broke the 3,649-point record that Lynette Woodard set in 1981 while playing for Kansas, which then belonged to the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). To break that record, Clark couldn’t help but fire off another crafty trey. She dribbled twice as she came off a screen, stepped back and fired. The ball swished.
Clark’s latest record-breaking moment is a reminder of what records signal. Washington Post sports columnist Sally Jenkins recently wrote that a record is a “symbolic message” that holds “potential, history and memory, all in one.”
The sharpshooter from Iowa has ushered in a new era of women’s college basketball. Droves of fans line up like she’s Beyoncé or Taylor Swift every time the Hawkeyes are in town, the television ratings for the sport are up, and…
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