Before setting the WNBA on fire and helping the league reach record viewership numbers, Caitlin Clark made her mark in college basketball. She played for the Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball from 2020 to 2024 and became one of the greatest players in the sport’s history.
Clark led Iowa to two consecutive national championship appearances. Although the Hawkeyes fell short both times, she emerged as one of the most popular female athletes in college sports. The 22-year-old averaged 28.4 points on 46.2% shooting, along with 7.1 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game, while breaking multiple records.
The Iowa native surpassed former LSU Tigers men's basketball star Pete Maravich’s record for the most points in NCAA history, finishing her career with an astounding 3,951 points, the most by a male or female player in Division I history. She also set the career record for most three-pointers made (548), as well as the single-season record with 201.
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In fact, it was on this day, March 3, two years ago, that Clark passed Maravich’s 3,667-point mark. The official Instagram page of the Indiana Fever and the NCAA jointly celebrated the anniversary by sharing a photo of Clark from that moment.
"this is who 🥹. two years ago today, @caitlinclark22 rewrote the record books and broke Pete Maravich’s 54-year-old record to become the @ncaa all-time leading scorer," the post read.
The photo showed a younger Clark, and she reposted it to her Instagram story, humorously writing, “I look the exact same lol.”
Clark’s success and personality fueled unprecedented growth in women’s college basketball, both on and off the court. When she entered the WNBA in 2024 as the No. 1 overall pick, she brought that audience to the professional stage as well.
In her first season with Indiana, Clark averaged 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 8.4 assists per game, earning Rookie of the Year honors while breaking multiple records yet again. She carried that momentum into her second year, but an injury limited her to just 13 games as she watched the Fever make a surprising run in the 2025 WNBA playoffs.