Caitlin Clark’s path to stardom paved by pioneering players

Long before Caitlin Clark broke records, packed arenas across the country like a Taylor Swift in sneakers and inspired young girls to be like her, women’s basketball looked very different than it does today.

Until 1997, there was no WNBA. Media coverage was minimal. The madness of March was almost exclusively the men’s domain.

Born five years following the WNBA’s launch, Clark has never known anything but what she’s helped create — a spectacular game underscored by a record 12.3 million viewers watching Monday’s LSU-Iowa rematch in the NCAA Tournament — and a sport with room to grow.

While Clark has done her part with every step-back logo 3-pointer, a generation of women cleared the way.

And as the Final Four roars into Cleveland this week —- Clark is there after scoring 41 in the regional final to dethrone Angel Reese and the defending champion Tigers — those roundball revolutionaries are getting a long overdue salute.

More than 40 years later, Nancy Lieberman remembers Billie Jean King assuring her she was blazing trails.

“She told me when I was 22, ‘You’re a pioneer,’” said Lieberman, whose oncourt wizardry earned her the nickname “Lady Magic” and made her a three-time Kodak All-American at Old Dominion, two-time Olympian and Naismith Hall of Famer.

“I’m like, what? I’m a pioneer? I didn’t know what she meant. I know what she means now.”

It’s easy to forget that the 1996 U.S. Olympic team, which jumpstarted two professional leagues, played in 5,000-seat arenas during the Atlanta Games. And before those leagues launched, women went overseas to play professionally.

As Clark rewrote the record books this season while pushing TV viewership to unimaginable levels and pulling unprecedented attention to the women’s game, she steered the spotlight toward stars who preceded her. With the same deft touch as one of her down-court passes for an assist to a fast-breaking teammate, Clark has connected present to past.

Before dynasties at South Carolina, UConn, Tennessee or Louisana Tech, there were dominant programs at Delta State and Immaculata University, the first women’s national champions in 1972.

Clark’s run has also illuminated the contributions of some of the sport’s giants — greats like Lieberman, Ann Meyers Drysdale, Pearl Moore, Carol Blazejowski, Cheryl Miller, Maya Moore, Lynette Woodard and many others who laid the foundation for the heights the game has reached in 2024.

These women, some of whom have records that still aren’t acknowledged by the NCAA, have been glossed over in these TikTok times.

“Those are the forgotten names, and they’re only brought up because there’s a record that was being broken where we haven’t done a great job at historically producing documentaries on the history of women’s basketball,” said South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, who has her undefeated team in a fourth straight Final Four.

“We have to do a better job,” Staley added. “This day and age will be documented and told a million times, and I hope when that’s being told that we pull from the legends. We’re standing on their shoulders, and what they’ve done should not be forgotten.”

Maybe not household names like today’s top players, who have benefitted from increased media attention the past two decades, and when NIL didn’t mean name, image and likeness but literally what they received for playing, they are the ones who made everything possible.

Barrier busters and then some.

“Some people play the game, and some people change the game,” Lieberman said in a phone interview. “I changed the game. Caitlin has changed the game. Cheryl Miller changed the game. Diana Taurasi changed the game. Brittney Griner changed the game and that doesn’t mean you’re not a hell of a player.