Caitlin Clark breaks a record you might not know a Kansas women’s basketball player held
LAWRENCE — Iowa’s Caitlin Clark became the all-time leading scorer in major women’s college basketball history on Wednesday, passing former Kansas great Lynette Woodard during a game against Minnesota.
Woodard played for the Jayhawks in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but her mark isn't recognized as the NCAA record — which Clark set for Division I earlier this season — because it was during the AIAW era and before the sport was governed by the NCAA. While at KU, Woodard scored 3,649 career points. And while she’s no longer the all-time leader in scoring, she figures to be her Kansas program’s all-time scoring leader for a long time.
"I just love that (Clark)'s a great shooter, a great player, having a sensational career," Woodard, who appreciates how Clark is making people think of the past, said this past weekend on the Jayhawk Radio Network broadcast of the Kansas vs. Kansas State game. "I like the fact that she is bringing so much attention to women's basketball, a lot more fans."
Woodard played in college at KU for another program great, former head coach Marian Washington. When Washington retired during the 2003-04 season, Woodard even filled in as head coach. The history of the Kansas program, and women’s basketball in college in general, can’t be told without either of them — just as Iowa’s program and the sport now can’t be told without Clark, either.
Clark is a senior at Iowa and that program’s all-time scoring leader. Last season, she helped guide Iowa to the national championship game and a runner-up finish during the NCAA tournament. With how well Iowa is playing this season, odds are she’ll have a chance to make a similar run and continue to add to her scoring total.
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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Iowa's Caitlin Clark breaks Kansas women’s basketball player's record
