When Lisa Bluder called it a career in May 2024, she walked away after writing one of the most iconic chapters in women’s college basketball. For over two decades, she was the coach for the Iowa Hawkeyes.
It was under her that the world heard the name Caitlin Clark. Under Bluder, Iowa reached back-to-back national championship games in 2023 and 2024. Although the team fell short first to LSU and then South Carolina, the games that Bluder’s team played spoke for themselves.
But before Bluder became a sideline legend, she was a collegiate player with an insane jump shot.
Lisa Bluder’s College Career: From Northern Iowa Starter to Coaching Legend
Years before Bluder was diagramming plays on the bench, she was on the hardcourts for Northern Iowa. She graduated from Linn-Mar High School in 1979 and went on to join the University of Northern Iowa, where she learned to ball.
At UNI, Bluder was filling up stat sheets. She was a three-year starter, suiting up for 108 games and averaging 9.6 points and 4.8 boards a night. Bluder’s 19-rebound performance against Illinois-Chicago is still the second-best single-game effort in school history. And her impact wasn’t just personal.
During her time on court, UNI had a 57-30 record. Bluder quite literally left the Panthers better than she found them. She graduated in 1983. And instead of taking a breather, she went into the coaching world.
Bluder’s first coaching role was at St. Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa. She was appointed head coach and assistant athletic director. She led her first team to an 18-13 season, and over the next six years, she compiled a 169-36 record. Her last four seasons ended with a 131-11 record.
Bluder, by the end of it, was the NAIA District 15 Coach of the Year four out of those five seasons. And that was the beginning. After St. Ambrose, she moved to Drake University. The program was struggling, but Bluder saw potential. In 11 seasons, she turned the program around and had a 187-106 record.
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She secured three Missouri Valley Conference regular season titles and four tournament crowns along the way. Bluder won the MVC Coach of the Year award and even national love from the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association 1997. It was in 2000 that Bluder finally arrived at Iowa.
By then, Bluder was a name the world knew quite well. The seeds were planted back at Northern Iowa, where she first fell in love with the game. The rest, as they say, is women’s basketball history.
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