‘Finally’: Women's Athletics Gaining Fans, Fame, Funding

A police escort guided the Holy Cross women’s basketball team from their hotel to the entrance of Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Fresh off the program’s second-ever NCAA Tournament victory two days prior, the Crusaders stepped off the bus and into an alternate universe — or, perhaps, a glimpse into the future.

More than an hour before tipoff, Iowa Hawkeye fans packed the arena for the first-round tournament game. Nationally, the contest was billed more as the Caitlin Clark Invitational than a postseason matchup, as the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer in Division I basketball history played her final games on her home court.

The madness of March 23, 2024, continued minutes before the game. Fire cannons erupted as the public address announcer introduced the starting lineups, battling for supremacy against the cheers and screams in the arena.

“It was surreal,” remembers Janelle Allen ’24, a senior forward on last year’s team, who scored 18 points in the matchup.

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Janelle Allen ’24 moves in the paint against Iowa in their March 2024 playoff matchup.

Among the 14,324 in attendance, a small spec of purple seemed anomalous among the sea of Iowa black and gold. The Crusader contingent consisted of families, like Allen’s brother, a defensive lineman for Iowa’s football team; friends and donors, such as Susan Power Curtin ’93; and administrators, like Kit Hughes, Holy Cross’ vice president for intercollegiate athletics.

Candice Green, last season an assistant coach and now head coach, remembers “just the amount of people and how loud it felt. And then there was a Holy Cross pocket. I’m not going to lie, I felt them.”

Courtside, ABC began broadcasting the game to the world, with viewers witnessing Holy Cross unexpectedly styming Clark and her teammates. The chaotic environment simmered to an anxious murmur as Clark finished the first quarter with more turnovers than shots made — an anomaly for the guard who averaged nearly 32 points in 34.8 minutes per game.

As Clark obliterated national and program records over the 2023-2024 NCAA season, she transcended sports to become a household name, as well as one of the nation’s most recognizable pop culture figures. Celebrities from “Ted Lasso” actor Jason Sudeikis to rapper Travis Scott landed courtside in Iowa City to witness firsthand her ability to drain shots from distances never seen before.

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Flanagan dribbles against two future WNBA talents, Caitlin Clark (22) and Kate Martin, during Holy Cross’ 2024 NCAA Tournament game at Iowa.

Iowa, a No. 1 seed, led by two over No. 16 Holy Cross after the first quarter. Social media buzzed. “Holy Cross” finished the day as the 30th-most talked about word or phrase on X. As for Google, the College, which usually receives an interest rating of between 25 and 30, skyrocketed to 100 — the highest value the search engine designates.

The tsunami of interest overloaded Holy Cross Athletics’ website, goholycross.com. At the game, Hughes spotted a notification on his cell phone from a rival athletic director: “Your website crashed.”

“I literally fist-pumped and yelled,” Hughes says. “In this day and age, a great measure of an incredible level of success, attention and meaning is that so many people are going to your website that the platform crashes. That’s what happened to us.”

Thirty minutes of playing time later, Iowa emerged victorious. But Holy Cross participated in history. Television ratings revealed that 3.2 million people watched the contest — the highest number for a first-round game and second-highest for a non-semifinal matchup. Among dozens of instant classics, the contest was the ninth-most-watched game of the 2024 women’s tournament.

The data speaks to the overwhelming interest across sports, yet it provides little context of the path cleared for the current athletes. For Holy Cross, guard Kaitlyn Flanagan ’26 wouldn’t have slowed down Caitlin Clark without the mentorship of guard Cheryl Aaron ’87.

Forward Lauren Manis ’20 isn’t drafted by the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces without guard Sherry Levin ’84 setting the high-water mark in scoring in program history. The team doesn’t enter a raucous arena armed with the belief of achieving the impossible without guard Amy O’Brien Davagian ’99 doing just that in 1997, dropping 38 points on powerhouse Connecticut.

“The journey that women’s sports has gone through, it’s almost, like, ‘It’s about time,’” Levin says.

The data is also void of a vision for future growth, like the possibilities unlocked by young girls and boys playing on a blacktop, launching 3-point shots and calling out, “Caitlin Clark for 3!” It also speaks nothing of the past trials and those still standing in the way.

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The Holy Cross Women's Basketball Team celebrates their Patriot League title with their fans in March 2024.

“We still hear the comments, ‘Oh, women’s basketball is boring to watch,’” Power Curtin says. “I would challenge that person, have they ever attended a women’s basketball game to see the talent?”

The talent has always been world-class. The basketball universe and beyond are finally ready to showcase it. The funding is coming. So, what’s next?

“If women’s sports continue to be prioritized, supported, endorsed and given the media coverage, I think the upward trajectory of where it could go is really limitless,” O’Brien Davagian says.

Talent starts early

Kathleen Courtney, M.D., ’97 arrived early as the coach of a youth girls’ basketball team in Foxboro, Massachusetts. She walked by a handful of boys standing under the basket as their workout wrapped up.

“They were all talking about women’s basketball,” says Dr. Courtney, who had her #33 retired at Holy Cross in 2023. “That made me happy.”

The evolution of the game goes beyond talk.

“They’re playing better than I did in high school,” Dr. Courtney says.

To help evaluate the talent, Dr. Courtney recruited Cheryl Aaron, a Holy Cross Hall of Famer who is now the athletic director at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. It didn’t take long for Aaron to be blown away, too.

“They’re dribbling between their legs,” Aaron says. “They’re shooting 3s. They’re so small and skinny. It was so fun watching the high level of Caitlin Clark down to a fifth grader in Foxboro.”

A fifth grader, Haley, wants to play at UConn, but Aaron isn’t bashful about Holy Cross. Still, it’s a dream neither Aaron nor Dr. Courtney possessed at Haley’s age. Aaron wanted to be the Boston Celtics’ Larry Bird. Dr. Courtney dreamed of being Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks.

“I wanted to play for the Celtics because that’s all you had,” Aaron says. “You had Dr. J, Larry Bird, Danny Ainge. There were really no visible great women’s players at that time.”

“True role models”

Several of Amy O’Brien Davagian’s family members worked at Holy Cross for decades. She visited campus as a young girl and became enthralled by the athletes.

“They were true role models,” O’Brien Davagian says. “Watching their home games in the early ’90s kind of changed my perception of what I wanted to do. I wanted to be them.”

As an eighth grader, O’Brien Davagian asked to be dropped off at a park that hosted summer league games. Without a team, she lingered close by, hoping a team wouldn’t have enough players and recruit her.

“Some nights I played one game,” O’Brien Davagian remembers. “Some nights I played three games.”

The desire to be great arrived with her on campus. In 1997, as she began the summer of her junior season, she learned the Crusaders would open against UConn. She prepared to dethrone the Huskies with the following summer routine: waking up at 6 a.m. to practice jump shots and post moves, followed by an eight-hour work day at the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office, returning to campus for strength and conditioning training with the football team, followed by a trip to Green Hill Park to measure her skill in a competitive women’s league.

Normally, she wasn’t alone.

“I’d be exhausted,” O’Brien Davagian says. “Threw up on the track. It’s 95 degrees in the summer and we’re sprinting 100 yards. We were dying hot, but saying, ‘UConn! UConn! UConn!’”

By that time, Sherry Levin was broadcasting UConn women’s games as an analyst alongside Robin Roberts, today co-anchor of ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Levin broadcast games inside UConn’s fieldhouse where, when snow on the roof melted, it leaked into the arena and onto the court, postponing play. Soon, head coach Geno Auriemma and associate head coach Chris Dailey arrived, and Levin witnessed firsthand the construction of what the state of Connecticut now refers to as the “Capital of College Basketball.”

Sideline seating would rise to capacity. Then, the lower bowl of Gampel Pavilion, home of the Huskies, began to sell out. Soon, the entire 10,000-seat arena would be packed. Today, marquee UConn women’s games are played in Hartford’s more than 16,000-seat XL Center to meet demand.

Holy Cross traveled to Gampel Pavilion on Dec. 3, 2024, and again frustrated an offensive juggernaut. The Crusaders limited then-No. 2 UConn to 11 first-quarter points and trailed by six at halftime. The Huskies won 88-52. After the game, Auriemma noted, “Holy Cross played in the first half like they were No. 5 in the country.” The Crusaders held guard Paige Bueckers to about half her scoring average with 11 points. The Dallas Wings are expected to select her first overall in this year’s WNBA draft.

Before her broadcast career, drawing up X’s and O’s to the tune of 420 wins and mentoring generational talents, such as WNBA center and Worcester Academy graduate Aliyah Boston, Levin earned the first women’s basketball scholarship at Holy Cross in 1980. Today, her #24 is retired at Holy Cross and the women’s locker room bears her name. Her scoring record ­— 2,253 points in just 103 games — still stands.

“I wanted to be the best player I could be. I wanted to be the best,” Levin says.

“There’s a different level of pressure when you’re averaging 22 points per game knowing you have to score that or more to have success. I also wanted to play professionally. And my biggest dream was to play in the Olympics.”

In 1984, Team USA invited Levin to try out for the second-ever Olympics to feature women’s basketball. She was cut when the team slashed the pool of players from 80 to 60. She realized her dream to play professionally, as New Jersey drafted her in the now-defunct Women’s Professional Basketball League, a forerunner of the WNBA.

“I was drafted in a league that failed and I took a regular job,” Levin says. “Therefore, the basketball went away.”

Aaron was a freshman when Levin graduated. Four years later, she found a home professionally, but had to travel overseas, where she played in Ireland for two seasons.

“Everyone kind of knew, ‘Hey, we have four years to play. Let’s make the most of it.’ There wasn’t any thought of [playing after college],” Aaron says. “But I wasn’t done. I felt like I just got good. And now I have to stop?”

NIL, social media, streaming up the ante

In October 2024, Nike announced Paige Bueckers would become the first college basketball player to have a signature shoe. It’s a concept that was illegal in college athletics only three years ago. In 2021, the NCAA removed a long-standing rule that prevented college athletes from profiting off their name, image and likeness (NIL).

“We’re working our butts off every day,” Janelle Allen says. “We understand it’s not professional, but it brings millions of viewers yearly. It’s good for the game in different ways and I do think it’s deserving.”

NIL still prevents athletes from receiving direct pay-for-play compensation; however, they are now allowed to earn money through advertising, appearances, merchandising, autographs and other arenas off the field.

While Holy Cross and the Patriot League haven’t dived fully into the NIL sweepstakes, it’s resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars being funneled to college athletes. Bueckers is slated to make $1.4 million this year, while Louisiana State University (LSU) guard Flau’jae Johnson owns the highest NIL figure in women’s hoops at $1.5 million, according to On3.

At LSU, gymnast Livvy Dunne has the highest NIL earnings of any female athlete at $4.1 million. She is the second-highest-paid college athlete, behind Deion Sanders’ quarterbacking son at Colorado, who earned $6.2 million.

“It’s awesome that kids can profit from what they’re doing,” Holy Cross women's basketball head coach Green says. “And then it brings so many eyes to women’s basketball. I think that’s the best thing.”

NIL has coincided with the explosion of social media. The two now live hand-in-hand, acting as one of the fuses that accelerated the explosion of women’s athletics within the past decade. 

“We didn’t have the social media platforms back in the ’90s that they have today,” O’Brien Davagian says. “I think getting the word out about women’s sports — that they’re competitive, that they’re fun to watch, that they’re filled with exceptional talent — I think that’s always been the case, but social media has also helped change stereotypes.” 

In the 1980s, sneaker brand Converse boosted the appeal of the NBA when it cashed in on the rivalry between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, planting the seeds of a global giant league that’s become the NBA. Nike built off that when it made every young hooper want to “Be Like Mike.”  Social media has allowed young athletes to use their name and image to generate brands and global attention without a national sponsor or ESPN broadcasting every one of their games.

Young sports fans flocked to WNBA games in 2024 to see not only Caitlin Clark, but also Chicago’s Angel Reese (10 million followers), Los Angeles’ Cameron Brink (2 million followers) and Seattle’s Nika Mühl (1 million followers). Each also has signed endorsement deals, ranging from sneakers to cars.

LSU’s Dunne boasts the largest following of any college athlete with nearly 14 million followers across all platforms. Miami point guards Hanna and Haley Cavinder have 5.4 million followers and Bueckers has 5.1 million. By comparison, Clark has about 4 million followers.

“Corporate support for the leagues and the athletes at any level, whether it’s NIL or individual advertising opportunities, those have boomed because of the exposure,” says Matt Chmura ’03, chief marketing, communications and brand officer for the LPGA Tour. “I also think it’s the changing of the media landscape. The idea that you can only watch sports on linear TV only allowed for a finite amount of channels. That’s been blown open.”

Before streaming, the sports universe existed on regional networks and cable powerhouse ESPN. Fans digested out-of-market sports on a 60-minute SportsCenter broadcast each morning. Today, fans don’t need ESPN or cable to watch their favorite teams or the sports they prefer to watch.

“Literally everything is streaming now,” Aaron says. “You can watch Wentworth vs. Lesley on Tuesday at 5 p.m. And if you miss that, you can watch it on demand.”

Beyond bringing sports to their fans, streaming allows leagues to dispel stereotypes and to prove their worth.

“That’s the path. You look at the NWSL’s ights deal they signed last year,” Chmura says. “They were able to showcase the interest in their league. When you look at previous iterations of women’s soccer, they didn’t have that ability.”

Dismantling barriers

Susan Power Curtin attended her first LPGA Tour event when she was 8 or 9 years old.

“It was the first time in my life that I saw women professional athletes. It made such an impact on me that I begged and begged for a set of clubs,” Power Curtin says.

On Christmas morning, she unwrapped a 3-wood and 7-iron, purchased by her uncle from Kmart. Living in Southern California, she wasted no time breaking them in at the park across the street.

However, as a young woman there were rules as to when she could play: more specifically, when she wasn’t allowed to be seen on the course.

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Susan Power Curtin ’93 (center, black jacket) stands among the Crusader fans who traveled to Iowa City for the playoff game.

“As a young female athlete, you’re always told ‘No’ or ‘You’re not welcome,’” Power Curtin says.

She could play on the courses, but only after a certain time. She couldn’t play the course on weekend mornings. The clubhouse, like the course, was off-limits. In high school, she played with the boys’ team when a girls’ team didn’t exist.

When she, as a Division I golfer, transferred from Utah’s Brigham Young University to Holy Cross, the College didn’t offer the sport.

“There were real barriers,” Power Curtin says.

Decades later, she is working to dismantle them.

“Where I sit, I’m not a coach or a player. I take that on as a responsibility personally to help financially impact women’s sports at the school and in other places,” Power Curtin says. “I feel an obligation to the women athletes at Holy Cross to bring even greater resources. Parity is a long way off, but I feel an obligation to use my talents and financial resources to help make our athletes have a better experience.”

Power Curtin credits Holy Cross’ Hughes for his guidance and investments in women’s sports, but the issues go beyond The Hill.

Almost every Division I program invests more in men’s programs than the women’s, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Every school in the Patriot League, including Holy Cross, spends more on its men’s programs. This translates to coaches’ salaries, in which the men’s coaches and their assistants make more than women’s coaches and assistants, which also follows national trends.

This, in turn, trickles down to the players and NIL. While UConn’s Bueckers is the consensus No. 1 overall pick for the WNBA, Duke guard-forward Cooper Flagg, the consensus No. 1 pick in the NBA 2025 Draft, earns $2.7 million in NIL money — about double Bueckers’ total, according to On3. Unlike Flagg, a freshman expected to play only one year at Duke, Bueckers has been at UConn five years and has accumulated dozens of national honors.

Bueckers also has more than five times the number of social media followers as Flagg.

“It’s not a Holy Cross thing. Parity across the board in women’s college athletics is far away,” Power Curtin says

Reinforcements may be on the way. The NCAA will vote in January to approve a basketball tournament pay structure similar to what already exists in the men’s game. According to the Associated Press (AP), a women’s basketball team that reaches the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament could bring its conference roughly $1.26 million over the next three years in financial performance rewards.

Teams will receive “units” for each win they tally in the tournament. A unit represents revenue from the NCAA Tournament’s media deal. The AP says $15 million will be awarded to teams in the first year of the fund. That number will grow to $25 million by 2028. The AP reports the payout is similar to the percentage received by men’s teams.

“It’s revenue that will go to teams for recognized success in women’s basketball,” Hughes says. “It will incentivize schools to invest at a level that allows them to be successful. This is a huge deal.”

Someone had to start it

When Holy Cross took the floor against Iowa, something was missing. Normally, a decal with the No. 22 sitting above “Clark” stamps the spot on the court where that guard sank a 3 to become the all-time leading scorer in Division I history.

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“The journey that women’s sports has gone through, it’s almost, like, ‘It’s about time,’” Levin says.

Not present during the NCAA Tournament, the historic landmark is 35 feet – or about 11 feet beyond the NBA 3-point line – from the basket toward the left side of the top of the arc.

The 3-point shot didn’t exist when Levin established the highwater scoring mark at Holy Cross 40 years ago.

“If someone came to me and said, ‘The NCAA is putting in a new 3-point line. If you shoot from where you normally shoot anyway — at the top of the key — you get an extra point,’ I’d be in the gym shooting thousands of 3-point shots,” Levin says. “That was my mentality.”

Levin also played in an era when seasons sported fewer games than they do now. In her four-year collegiate career, Levin played 103 games. By comparison, Clark reached 100 games at the end of her junior season.

Strip away Clark’s 3-pointers — making every shot she hit a 2-pointer as when Levin played — and the sharpshooter’s point total through 103 games is 2,455 — just 202 points more than Levin. That’s fewer than 2 points per game.

“For me, I did the best I could with what I had,” Levin says. “I was very grateful and appreciative to have what I had. That’s how I look at it.”

Levin sidestepped praise and credited giants within the game, like women’s basketball hall of famers Ann Meyers and Nancy Lieberman, and contemporaries, such as current LSU head coach Kim Mulkey, for inspiring her. 

She referred to her class of 1984 teammates — Phylis Townsend, M.D., Bridget Ireland Cafaro, Laura Gyle Smith and Amy Dwyer Barron, as well as Mary Anne Palazzi ’83 — as trailblazers. When she reminisces about each point she scored, every game she broadcasted or player she mentored, her voice fills with pride.

“When you look at the Caitlin Clark effect, the new contracts and everything they’re deservedly getting, I think they realize the shoulders of the women that came before them that they stand on,” Levin says. “I hope they can look back and say, ‘Someone had to start it.’"