A rivalry that mixes black and gold with blue and white
So many connections between Drake and Iowa make their games a bit of a family reunion
In-state rivalries are a strange bird. By their very nature, they really aren’t all that friendly in any sport. After all, the teams recruit many of the same athletes, they battle for the affection of the local fans and they might even pilfer staff from time to time.
Given those parameters, it’s almost strange to call the Drake and Iowa women’s basketball team in-state rivals. Sure, they play each other every year, they’re 120 miles apart and players want those bragging rights. But rivals? Nah, these teams are more like cousins – the kind of cousins who are such close pals they have slumber parties and are in each other’s weddings.
“It’s unusual but it’s a pretty special relationship,” said Lisa Bluder, who retired as Iowa’s coach last spring after 24 years with the Hawkeyes that came after 10 years coaching the Bulldogs. “I think it just naturally happened because of all the connections.”
Sunday’s game, of course, is the biggest-ever connection between the two programs. On a day when the Drake program is commemorating its 50th season of women’s basketball, one of its most successful alums comes back to face her alma mater with a team dressed in black and gold. Jan Jensen, who led the nation in scoring as a Drake Bulldog in 1991, will come to the Knapp Center as the first-year coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes.
That’s just a drop in the bucket of the many ways these two programs are connected. It’s to be expected with any in-state rivals, but Drake and Iowa take it to a level of interwoven craziness. Some connections are well-known, some are just amusing coincidences. All it all, it makes for a genuinely entertaining experience for the teams and their fans well beyond what the final score might be.
“It’s definitely unique,” said Missy (Slockett) Disterhoft, who was a scrappy guard at Drake in 1985-89 while her daughter, Ally, starred at Iowa in 2013-17. “But for me, it’s really special with both of us playing.”
Missy Disterhoft was teammates with Jensen and Jenni Fitzgerald, who retired as an Iowa assistant last spring. While Drake was the first team to make an offer to Ally, she eventually chose the hometown Hawkeyes after playing at Iowa City West. It worked out well; Ally became the Hawkeyes’ all-time leading scorer, a mark that was soon topped by Megan Gustafson, Monika Czinano and Caitlin Clark.
“I definitely felt conflicted early in Ally’s career at Iowa when they played Drake,” Missy Disterhoft said. “Drake gave me the opportunity for an exemplary education that I honestly wouldn't have had without my basketball scholarship, so in some ways it felt almost disloyal to cheer against Drake.
“In the end, you support your kids in their journey and that takes precedence, but I was always glad to have that particular game behind us every season.”
The schools are kind of the Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova of women’s basketball. Each has had their time in the spotlight, each has had dominant runs, each has reason to want to kick the other’s butt but ultimately chose a friendlier type of competition.
Iowa leads the series between the two teams, 30-25, has won the past six games and has dominated in recent decades. The first game in Drake women’s basketball history was a 78-67 Bulldog victory over the Hawkeyes on Nov. 20, 1974. Drake dominated the series early with 17 wins in a row between 1976 and 1985. Iowa won 14 in a row in 2002-2015 and all but one since. Three of Drake’s victories in the series were with Bluder as coach.
Most of the bonhomie between the schools is recent, or at least relatively recent-ish. It was a little more frosty as the schools built their programs in the 1970s and 1980s and tussled for supremacy in a growing sport, but the rivalry became a friendly one when Bluder and her staff moved to Iowa. (Conversely, there are some old-school Drake men’s basketball fans who still haven’t forgiven Maury John, who died in 1974, for leaving the Bulldogs to go to Iowa State in 1971.)
Bluder came to Drake in 1990 and two years later hired former Bulldogs Jensen and Fitzgerald as assistants. Both followed her to Iowa in 2000.
Those aren’t the only coaching connections between the schools, though.
Lisa Stone, who followed Bluder at Drake, played at Iowa in 1980-84. So did Jennie Baranczyk (2000-2004), who coached Drake in 2012-2021 and is now at Oklahoma.
“You invest so much of your time and energy and love into that place,” Bluder said. “Then you just can't go and just say, ‘Oh, forget it, we don't like you anymore now.’ That just doesn't work.”
Bluder said circumstances made it impossible for her staff to just walk away from Drake even though they were in Iowa City. In Bluder’s first year as Iowa coach, 2000-2001, two Bulldog players received cancer diagnoses in the same week. Martha Chaput had played a season for Bluder, while she and her staff had recruited Mandy Kappel. Both players recovered.
“There were so many things that were emotionally attached to that first year,” Bluder said. “That really just kind of solidified the connection.”
Those are just the coaching connections. Players and former players are intertwined as well. Sunday’s game will be a family affair for the McCabe sisters: Taylor is a junior guard for Iowa, Peyton is a freshman at Drake. The Meyer sisters of Mason City also had a Drake-Iowa connection: Makenzie played for the Hawkeyes in 2016-20, Megan played two seasons at Iowa before transferring to Drake, where she finished her career last season.
Former Drake star Kristi Kinne was an assistant coach at Iowa in the 1990s. Julie Fitzpatrick, an all-conference player for the Bulldogs who played in 1984-88, is married to Iowa Coach Jensen.
Then there are just fun connections between the schools. As media told the Caitlin Clark story in recent years, there were many images of her in Drake blue from her youth basketball days. And that superstar tight end for the San Francisco 49ers, the one who played for the Iowa Hawkeyes? George Kittle’s mom is Jan Krieger, a star player at Drake and a member of the team that advanced to the Elite Eight in 1982.
And the connection is even inescapable halfway around the world. Former Hawkeye star Megan Gustafson is spending part of her WNBA offseason in France watching her boyfriend, David DiLeo, play professional basketball there. DiLeo, who grew up in Iowa City, is the son of former Drake player Kay (Riek) DiLeo. Kay DiLeo was also a member of Drake’s 1982 Elite Eight team.
No doubt the connections will only grow, and the relationship will likely stay strong, too.
“With Jan, I think it's going to continue,” Bluder said. “How can it not, when your jersey's hanging up there in the opposing arena?”
In the archives: Drake University Archives and Special Collections has created a digital exhibit that tells the story of 50 seasons of Drake women’s basketball. The items in the digital presentation can be viewed in person at Cowles Library on the Drake campus. The library is open to the public.
Jane Burns is a former sports and features writer for the Des Moines Register, as well as other publications and websites. She’s a past winner of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Mel Greenberg Award for her coverage of women’s basketball. Over the course of her career she’s covered pretty much everything, which is why her as-yet-to-be-written memoir will be called “Cheese and Basketball: Stories From a Reporter Who Has Covered Everything.”
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Great article! And one more connection; George Kittle's wife Claire played for Iowa WBB too! (This is maybe a bit indirect, but I had to mention.)
I love the threads that weave these two programs together. I also love that you covered both in your time in sports journalism. Your experience informs this story...and all of us.