Former Minnesota Women’s Basketball Coach Talks Growth of the Game

Last weekend’s Women’s Basketball game between Iowa and LSU drew well over 12 million viewers on TV. And over the last few days there have been a lot of people talking about that game. 

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Iowa’s Caitlyn Clark has been the focus of so much attention this season because of her unique talent. That has led to much debate about Women’s basketball, and why it’s suddenly popular.  

As someone who has been a fan of and broadcast a ton of women’s games over the years, I’m thrilled to see it. I’ve seen firsthand the struggles that coaches and players have faced in trying to grow their game.  

The fact is, the game has always been good, tv programmers and others in the industry just refused to believe that the general public, and sports fans could care. 

Yesterday I had the opportunity to chat with former University of Minnesota Women’s Basketball Coach Ellen Mosher Hanson. She was the Head Coach of The Gophers from 1977-1987 and is the mother of my friend Katie Pate.  

We spoke about the differences in the game from then to now.  

Ellen is ecstatic that the game is getting so much attention, because she and so many others were focused on “growing the game” through times when the playing field was not nearly what it is today.  

“I had one full-time assistant, and a part-time assistant. We had a team manager and a guy who would record the games. I don’t even think we paid the manager or the guy who recorded the games” she said.  

Today, the Gophers have 3 assistant coaches, a quality control coach, a video coordinator, and the head coach.  

In her first year leading the Gophers, her team did not play a game outside of Minnesota. This was before Minnesota was in the Big 10 Ellen said. “I was responsible for my schedule, I knew for us to grow and be a Nationally recognized program, we would need to start playing games in places like Texas and California.  

“We got an expanded budget and started taking trips to Tennessee, Ohio and New York”. “We eventually played what would be close to a Big 12 schedule today”. I asked if the expanded schedule and travel helped in recruiting and Ellen thinks it did.  

When recruiting a player, she would tell them her goal was for them to travel to all parts of the United States during their time with the program, which was something a lot of Midwestern Kids didn’t do back then Ellen added. “We played in the Alaskan Northern Lights Tournament, a tournament at Disney and went to places like California and saw the beach”. It was about giving her players “experiences” as well as an education and basketball.  

One of the other things that has grown over the years is the specific support for Women’s Teams. Ellen helped start the “Fast Break Club” at Minnesota which helped raise money to support her team. “I would meet with folks after games, and at other times to talk about our team and the games”.  

The Fast Break Club had a core of about 350 supporters consistently.  

During her time at U of M, a good crowd would be around 2,500 but on average there would be between 800 to 1,000 fans at games. These days the Gophers will see 3,500 to 5,000 fans in attendance.  

When Caitlyn Clark and Iowa played in Williams Arena on February 28th, there were over 14,000 fans there to see Caitlyn but also be exposed to Minnesota Women’s Basketball.  

Ellen told a great story about playing a game while the Men’s Hockey team was also playing at the same time. “We could hear the crowd cheering at the hockey game, so we knew they scored a goal. Then I looked down at the end of the bench, and there sat Herb Brooks. I thought, what is he doing here?” 

After her game, Ellen approached Coach Brooks, “What are you doing here? Don’t you have a game?” she said. “I got kicked out” Coach Brooks told her as they both shared a laugh over the moment. 

One more difference in Women’s College Basketball is the salaries the Coaches earn today. According to a post on X (twitter) from Ellens daughter Katie, during her time with the Gophers she earned $40,000 per year.  

“In our Big 10 Coaches meetings, we would always talk about salaries and what the Men’s Coaches were earning” she said. Current Stanford Coach Tera Vanderveer left Ohio State for Stanford in 1985 and doubled her salary, and that was something that caught the attention of all the Coaches she said. 

The game itself is different if you watched games from then to now. Ellen credits the three-point line and the shot clock for helping the appeal of the game grow.  

“Before the three-point line, there was no real reason to shoot a shot from that far back. But now, it’s something that has become a real focus, and there are a lot of ladies who can really shoot from that range”.  

I mentioned the crowd that poured into Williams Arena to watch Caitlyn Clark play against the Gophers, some people believe seeing a lot of people at a women’s basketball game is odd to them.  

But not Ellen, she grew up in Iowa and played her high school ball there. “Girls Basketball is big in Iowa and there would be huge crowds to watch the games”. “People would be lined up outside for the tournament like they are today” she said.  

Ellen recalled the popularity of basketball in her home state and that girls working to get better is a part of their fabric there. If you’ve been impressed with Caitlyn Clark and her practice and work ethic, just know it isn’t uncommon in Iowa to see players work on their craft in a similar fashion.  

Ellen Mosher Hanson retired from Coaching in 1987. “I was never home, gone all the time” she said. Ellen and her husband got married in 1984 and he had two small daughters, Katie and Kristi. They moved to Wisconsin after her retirement, and she ran basketball camps and watched her daughters grow and play basketball. 

Her daughter Katie has been a college head coach and assistant coach and is now in Athletic Administration. I met “Coach Katie” when she was an assistant at Lenoir Rhyne University in Hickory N.C in 2008 and we’ve remained friends ever since.  

My last question for Ellen was this “what was more nerve wracking for you, coaching in a big game or watching Katie coach in a big game? As I suspected, Ellen smiled and said, “watching Katie for sure”.  

So, as we watch the Final Four games, and see where the Women’s game has grown. Celebrate the growth of the game but remember there have been so many women like Ellen who carried the flame and passed the torch to others to get women’s basketball to where it is now.