The Iowa Hawkeyes football team couldn’t perform up to their potential in the 2023 season as they lost in the Big Ten Championship game against Michigan. Nonetheless, with a re-energized locker room, the Hawkeyes took the field against the Illinois State Redbirds on Saturday starting their 2024 campaign. While the players were prepping for a showdown in the Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, multiple fans waited in their seats to see live action. But, something marked Caitlin Clark’s presence in the tournament despite her not being there to support the Hawkeyes.

Among multiple fans, an admirer was spotted wearing Caitlin Clark’s shirt. As the TV channels moved on from the fan, another follower came into the camera’s focus donning a Clark shirt. And wait! Not just two fans, multiple fans had brought the Clark fever to the stadium which just reflected that she is one of the most popular athletes to come out of Iowa. The same sentiment was echoed by a surprised Iowa Hawkeyes correspondent David Eickholt.

“It’s an Iowa Football game. And Caitlin Clark shirts have been by far the most popular ones. Pretty unbelievable,” Eickholt tweeted on the social media networking site X on Saturday.

Clark is currently playing her regular season games in the WNBA with the most recent one coming against the Chicago Sky on Friday. The Iowa-born hit her career-high 31 points with 12 assists during the contest helping her team win the matchup by a 100-81 tally. Despite the game being at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, on Chicago Sky’s Special Barbie Night, Clark demonstrated who the boss was with her latest outing.

The former Hawkeyes star shot 8 for 14, which helped her bag her 11th double-double. With this game, she became the only star to have 3 games of at least 25 points and 10 rebounds in a single W season. Her contribution was acknowledged by all Indiana fans who did not shy away from praising the ex-NCAA Queen on their social media handles. Meanwhile, Clark has previously too demonstrated her hold on Kinnick Stadium during an exhibition game at the start of the Hawkeyes 2023-24 campaign.

Caitlin Clark frenzy had taken over Kinnick Stadium in 2023

The Hawkeyes’ women’s basketball team gained a lot of fans when Clark & Co. participated in their exhibition game against DePaul at the Kinnick Stadium in October. Clark along with her teammates usually played the regular season home games at the Carver-Hawkeye arena which has a seating capacity of 15,500. However, in an attempt to get as many fans as possible, the Hawkeyes played at the Kinnick Stadium during the exhibition game that attracted 55,646 fans. And the credit for it went to Clark as per Iowa’s official news site.

In what was known as the Crossover at Kinnicks, the experience featured everything that could be found in a football game: stadium flyover, an honorary kid captain, thundering Iowa chants, and a lot more. But what was impressive was that Clark fever had taken over the football followers at Iowa who flocked to the stadium to support their favorite basketball player.

And once again at the start of the football regular season, Clark has demonstrated that she still holds the key to the hearts of football fans despite passing out in 2024. Hopefully, these fans will also make the most of the opportunity to watch Clark play in the W despite having to travel to Indiana miles away.