Women’s sports are experiencing a years-long surge in popularity, with attendance, television ratings, and fanfare reaching unprecedented heights.
College basketball has been at the epicenter of that growth, as Iowa sharpshooter Caitlin Clark transcended the sport and introduced a new, diverse generation of fans to the game.
The University of Toledo likes to say it was ahead of the curve. Former coach Bill Fennelly created a spike in excitement around the program in the early 1990s with multiple NCAA tournament berths. The trajectory continued under Mark Ehlen, and then Tricia Cullop took the Rockets to another stratosphere.