On Sept. 26, Hope Bibens remembered why she loves Drake women’s basketball. The Director of University Archives was at Hoops Fest in downtown Des Moines. She watched as her four-year-old daughter Hattie ran around, practiced her basketball skills and interacted with Drake players. 

“They’re in the community. They’re giving back to the community,” Bibens said. “Our women’s basketball team — they’ll always stop and talk to little kids.” 

Drake WBB has embodied this excellence for generations and is being recognized for such ahead of its 50th anniversary season. 

History of excellence 

The excellence of Drake WBB predates its varsity status, according to “A Legacy of Trailblazers and Champions,” a new Drake University Archives exhibit.   

The earliest WBB team at Drake was formed in 1904 by 25 players.  

To Bibens, it’s not surprising that women were playing basketball at Drake before Title IX, a federal law passed in 1972 that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational institutions.

“I think Iowa in particular has a really rich history of high school girls’ athletics,” Bibens said. “For me, that makes sense for that to have transitioned to the college level as well. And the women’s physical education seems to have been fairly robust at Drake at that time.” 

What Bibens said was “interesting” about the first team was that it competed against other schools. The exhibit displays a Des Moines Register article from Feb. 1, 1905 that details a  game against Perry Normal College. 

“Both teams played a good game, though the Drake girls had the better of it from a point of teamwork, and their basket throwing was surer,” reads the article. 

Some Drake administrators condemned the team despite its success, according to an audio recording in the exhibit. The recording captures the voice of Mary Frances Jones Boyd, a center player on the 1904-05 Drake WBB team. 

“She came and announced that they had decided that it was not ladylike for ladies to play basketball, and we had to stop,” Jones Boyd said about Drake’s then-Dean of Women in the recording.  

To Carole Baumgarten, the first Drake WBB head coach, that was the whole point of women’s basketball: to not be ladylike. 

“She said women’s basketball at Drake will not be ‘dainty,’” Bibens said, referencing text in the exhibit. “‘It will be run-and-gun offense coupled with full court pressing defense to fit the aggressive mood of its athletes.’” 

In 1974, two years after Title IX passed, Drake established six varsity programs: gymnastics, softball, tennis, track and field, volleyball and basketball.

The basketball program thrived under Baumgarten. It placed second in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament of 1979 and joined the NCAA Elite 8 in 1982, according to the exhibit.  

Baumgarten led her team to the national court in 1984 and 1986, according to the Missouri Valley Conference. In the first round of the 1984 NCAA tournament, the Bulldogs played and lost against Texas. They bounced back in 1986, advancing to the second round after beating Kentucky. 

Baumgarten left Drake in 1986. After that, the program “dropped a little bit,” said Lisa Bluder, the retired head coach of women’s basketball at the University of Iowa who coached Drake WBB in the 1990s.

From 1987 to 1990, Drake WBB was losing more games than it was winning.  

“The problem was they lost so many people,” Bluder said. “They lost their starting point guard, who had been there for four years, Jenny Fitzgerald. They lost Yvette Simmons, who was a starter for a long time.” 

Drake WBB was a “rebuilding project,” Bluder said. But she was willing to take it on. 

“I knew that it had possibilities because of the history of the program and the greatness that they had earlier,” Bluder said.   

“Resurgence” of excellence 

Bluder became the head coach of Drake WBB in 1990. She would spend the next decade returning it to excellence. 

One of her goals was to go to the NCAA tournament. In 1995, the Bulldogs not only satisfied this goal — but they exceeded it. They beat the University of Mississippi in the first round.

“I think that was a big statement for a school like Drake coming in and beating Mississippi,” Bluder said. 

In the second round, in an overtime game, the team lost against George Washington University. 

But Bluder and the Bulldogs would be back. They competed on the national court three more times in 1997, 1998 and 2000. 

Drake WBB proved to be a victorious team. 

“In our last years, we were the state champs, having defeated [University of Northern Iowa], Iowa State and [the University of] Iowa and were ranked in the top 25 in the country,” Bluder said.

Bluder didn’t just want to win games, though. 

“I wanted to do it with women that were tremendous women that happened to play basketball,” Bluder said. “They were women that had good values, understood that they were role models, that little kids were watching them and wanted to be like them, so they needed to be a good example. People that wanted to be out in the public and use their platform for good.” 

During her time at Drake, Bluder achieved all her goals. 

“There were so many great young women, and we really had achieved excellence,” Bluder said.  

In 2000, despite being “very happy” at Drake, Bluder left and became the head coach of women’s basketball at the University of Iowa. 

“The transition was hard because I loved Drake,” Bluder said. “The only job I was going to leave Drake for was Iowa because that was the ultimate dream job.” 

Today, when Bluder thinks about Drake WBB, she said she thinks of the women she worked with and the “excellence” they were able to achieve. 

A culture of fostering excellence 

Today, Drake WBB continues to embody excellence.

Despite feeling the chaos and confusion that came with adjusting to a new school, senior player Anna Miller secured honors for herself and her team at the end of her first year. 

In that 2021-22 season, Drake WBB had six new players and a new head coach, Miller said. 

“That season we had some more losses than I would have liked,” Miller said. 

Still, Miller said she continued to do her best every day. She ended her first year with 50 blocks and MVC All-Freshman Team honors, according to the Drake University Archives exhibit “A Legacy of Trailblazers and Champions.”

Miller’s team found success in the postseason, making the Sweet 16 of the WNIT. This fueled the team going into her sophomore year, Miller said. In 2023, Drake WBB won the MVC tournament and attended the NCAA tournament.  

The team went on to break records. In the 2023-24 season, Drake WBB secured a conference record of 19-1. It was the first time in MVC men’s and women’s basketball history for a team to win 19 or more conference games, according to Drake University Athletics. 

In addition to succeeding at the team level last season, Miller succeeded on an individual level.  She earned MVC Defensive Player of the Year for the second year in a row and reached 214 career blocks, ranking her second in Drake WBB history, according to the exhibit. Also, for the first time in a game, Miller successfully executed a left-hand hook shot.  

“I had been practicing a left-hand hook shot…every single day for months,” Miller said. 

The time she finally made it in — Drake WBB fans know it as the buzzer-beater that made the Bulldogs MVC champions. 

Miller attributes the excellence of Drake WBB to its culture.  

“My teammates and I, we just get along super well and genuinely want everyone to succeed,” Miller said. “I think the coaches do a really good job of fostering that and they care a lot about us, and it makes it really easy to have success when that is the case.”  

The next 50 years 

This season, Drake WBB wants to continue to embody excellence, Miller said. 

“Hopefully we’re running it back,” Miller said. “I think going back to the NCAA tournament is always a goal for our team and to win as many games as possible.” 

Miller knows that to continue the legacy of excellence, Drake WBB must continue its legacy of positive team culture. 

“[When we] have our alumni come back, the things that they always talk about is the team culture and the friendships that they had,” Miller said. “And so, to continue that as well, I think that the culture also leads into the success of the team.” 

Miller sees her current Drake WBB team as an extension of previous teams.  

“I think you can look back into the Drake [WBB] history and say, this team has played this way and has had a culture of winning — and for a very long time,” Miller said. “And I think, we’re just adding a little stone onto that already built pile.”

This story was originally published on The Times-Delphic on October 9, 2024.