The Iowa women’s basketball team just made NCAA history!
Led by national player of the year Caitlin Clark, the Hawkeyes set the tone for their 2023-24 season Sunday, securing a 94-72 victory against DePaul on Sunday afternoon — and making history in the process.
Instead of the team’s usual home turf of Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the preseason game against the Blue Demons was held at Kinnick Stadium, making it the first women’s basketball game to be played outdoors in a football stadium.
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55,646 fans packed Kinnick Stadium on October 15, 2023, breaking the NCAA women’s basketball attendance record.
Iowa Women’s Basketball/X
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“Crossover at Kinnick,” a benefit exhibition for the neighboring Children’s Hospital, also had the largest attendance of any game in NCAA women’s basketball history, according to the association.
The stands were filled with 55,646 fans, a number that broke the NCAA single-session attendance record by more than 26,000.
The previous record was tied during the 2002 NCAA Tournament when the Final Four teams — Tennessee, Duke, UConn and Oklahoma — combined to fill 29,619 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, with the latter two teams drawing the same crowd a few days later for the final. according to the NCAA website.
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Caitlin Clark (22) led the Hawkeyes to victory during their record-setting preseason game on Oct. 15.
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In the record-breaking Crossover in Kinnick, Anaya Peoples led the Blue Demons with 19 points and Clark — who was just added to Nancy Lieberman’s 2024 Playmaker Watch List — posted a triple-double (34 points, 11) rebounds and 10 assists ).
In a video shared by the Hawkeyes on Xu (formerly known as Twitter), Clark warmed up for the historic exhibition by signing posters and T-shirts for young fans, including one little girl who told her, “You’re my idol.”
“Women’s sports matter 💛,” the team captioned the clip.
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Caitlin Clark (left) and Anaya Peoples (right) were the top scorers for their teams at the Crossover in Kinnick on Oct. 15, 2023.
Matthew Holst/Getty
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Money raised by the historic Iowa-DePaul matchup went to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital, which overlooks the stadium, according to Hawk Central. The event raised $250,000, which the Iowa athletic department then donated to the hospital during the game.
After the first quarter, teams, referees and fans also participated in a Kinnick tradition usually practiced by the football team — pausing the game to wave at the children’s hospital window.
In a video shared by the team, several children and adults at the hospital, some of whom had foam fingers that read “Keep Fighting,” waved back.
The Hawkeyes’ record-setting game comes a little more than a month after the Nebraska women’s volleyball team made headlines for breaking the world record for attendance in women’s sports.
On August 30, more than 92,000 fans packed into Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska, to watch the Cornhuskers play the Omaha Mavericks.
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The historic volleyball match ended with the home team winning 3:0 in front of a record crowd. (NCAA volleyball games are typically played in arenas that hold 10,000 to 20,000 spectators.)
When the incredible attendance record was announced to the crowd, which was filled with Cornhusker red, the fans cheered wildly.
“Husker Nation, you did it. THE WORLD RECORD for a women’s sporting event lives on in Lincoln,” X team account published on Wednesday. “Today’s attendance: 92,003. There’s NO PLACE like Nebraska.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education