Becoming Caitlin Clark

Becoming Caitlin Clark The unknown origin story of a modern basketball star

Howard Megdal

Book - 2025

Combining modern reportage with historical revelations, a multifaceted portrait of Caitlin Clark's game-changing superstardom and the cultural foundation it was built upon. Caitlin Clark has established herself as one of the global faces of the WNBA and has ignited popular interest in women's sports. Her ascent to dominance and international celebrity represents the continuation of a surprisingly deep lineage for women's basketball in the state of Iowa where Clark was born and raised, and where she wrote her name throughout the NCAA history books as a Hawkeye. Spanning 100 years and several generations, Becoming Caitlin Clark traces the arc between the revered women who played the wildly popular game of 6-on-6 basketball in t...he 1920s and Clark in the 2020s, examining her fame and style of play in the context of her predecessors, while telling the story of the basketball-loving community that rallied behind her in college and beyond.

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796.323092/Clark
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Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor New Shelf 796.323092/Clark (NEW SHELF) Due Dec 24, 2025
Subjects
Clark, Caitlin, > 2002-
Iowa Hawkeyes (Women's basketball team)
Indiana Fever (Basketball team)
Women basketball players > Biography.
Women basketball players > United States > Biography.
Basketball players > United States > Biography.
Guards (Basketball) > United States > Biography.
Biographies.
Genres
Biographies
Published
Chicago : Triumph Books LLC 2025.
Language
English
Main Author
Howard Megdal (-)
Physical Description
xxiv, 277 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN
9781637277959
  • Foreword
  • Introduction
  • 1. Dorcas and an Institution
  • 2. Caitlin Clark and the Balance of Power
  • 3. The Hornettes Change the Game
  • 4. Caitlin Clark's WNBA
  • 5. Caitlin Clark's Fairy Godmother
  • 6. Who Gets a Rope Line?
  • 7. The House That Vivian Built
  • Afterword
  • Acknowledgments
  • Sources
Review by Booklist Review

Given the cover photo and title, readers expecting a traditional memoir about basketball superstar Caitlin Clark might be a tad disappointed; nevertheless, this is a well-researched dive into Iowa girls basketball culture and the predecessors who fostered the conditions that enabled Clark's meteoric success as a high-schooler, through college, and in the WNBA. This complements Megdal's Rare Gems (2024), about four generations of women who paved the way for women's basketball, and examines the historic nature of the "Iowa way," as the state embraced the sport going back to the early 1900s and the tradition of girls playing a six-on-six format. Megdal chronicles Clark's career with interviews and plenty of hoop action but also delves into the significance of trailblazers like "Machine Gun" Molly Bolin Kazmer and Iowa coaches Lisa Bluder (who wrote the foreword), Jan Jensen, and the legendary C. Vivian Stringer. Sports history buffs and basketball fans will understand why former Iowa governor Herschel Loveless declared, "Girls basketball is as much a part of our state as our green valley of corn."

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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