IOWA CITY, Iowa — For two hours on a Sunday afternoon, she was nothing more than a women’s basketball fan taking in a generational talent and watching her alma mater pull off a top-five upset.

Caitlin Clark bounced up when Iowa players launched 3-point attempts, gestured furiously for travel calls and voiced irritation at perceived missed fouls. When Iowa went up 16-1 on No. 4 USC and national player of the year contender JuJu Watkins late in the first quarter, the entire Clark contingent was up and roaring with the sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd.

By the time the Hawkeyes pulled off a signature 76-69 Big Ten victory, the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer calmly flashed a smile in the stands while students stormed the court. Clark slid on a varsity jacket with emblems of her high school, college and professional teams to bracket a silver necklace outlining the state of Iowa. When the dust settled, she joined her alumna, flanked by security, to celebrate.

No one else in the arena moved. For two hours on a Sunday afternoon, they ate up an unexpected dessert with wandering eyes toward Clark, their hometown hero. They tapped the shutter on their phones, hoping for their own generational talent to appear in the background. For many, it was why they were here. Or, why they were watching a jersey retirement ceremony at home on national television.

Clark returned to Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the first time since she was a player to see her jersey lifted to the rafters between Megan Gustafson and the banners for the 2023 and 2024 national championship runner-up teams she helmed. The crowd first filled this house for her and made it roar again as if she were shooting from the Clark 22 logo installed where she broke the scoring record.

“It’s fun for me to come back and just say thank you to everybody that poured so much into me and allowed me to be great,” Clark said ahead of the ceremony. “Whether that’s the social media people, whether that’s the marketing team, whoever it is that made me look really good at times. None of this happens without all those people pouring themselves into our team and our program every single day.”

Former teammates Kate Martin, Gabbie Marshall and Monika Czinano sat baseline. Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White and chief operating officer Amber Cox were in attendance to watch their star player. David Letterman, a native of Clark’s new home in Indianapolis, chatted courtside with former Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder. He entered to some of the brighter roars of the night and filmed the banner rising after the game.

In this arena, no one receives louder bellows than Clark. Everything was centered on Clark, from the timeout video montages to the No. 22 jersey replica towels on every seat. She said ahead of the game to be back without suiting up was “weird.” She made an appearance at a football game to receive the team’s rings, but she hadn’t made it back much while in Indiana training and enjoying time off. On Friday, she practiced with the team of new starters who are facing outside pressure of replicating the Clark magic.

She said she thought it might be one of her more emotional ceremonies at Carver because she wasn’t playing beforehand. The most touching came when Bluder put into perspective how much Clark changed the landscape not only in Iowa, where the “big game tomorrow” means the women are playing, but in the wider women’s basketball world, where players like Watkins are receiving more attention than prior stars.

“I spent my entire career trying to empower young women,” Bluder said. “That’s what it’s all about. You’ve done more in the last four years than anybody could imagine.

“You’ve showed people why it’s wise to invest in women’s sports. Why it’s wise to invest in women. It’s not only the right thing to do, but it’s the smart thing to do.”

A video montage played of fans thanking and congratulating Clark. It included a man saying Clark brought he and his mother, who had since passed, closer together. A new mom bestowed her newborn with the middle name “Cece,” for Clark’s initials. Another mom thanked Clark for taking time with her son in the children’s hospital and later signing the photo for her older son after his brother died.

A young girl delivered her thanks and quickly added a message.

“Say hi to Taylor Swift for me,” she said in reference to the megastars sharing a box at a Kansas City Chiefs playoff game.

There are few other athletes with as large of a footprint as Clark. Everything she does is news and there are photos and videos of seemingly everywhere she goes. In the ascension of women’s basketball, she sent it through the rafters before her jersey joined it there.

“We thought she would be All-American and we believed she would take us to the Final Four,” said Iowa coach Jan Jensen. “But did we think she’d be the most recognizable athlete on the planet? Probably not.”

From the national championship game loss to South Carolina and throughout her rookie season, Clark had been reticent to process her prolific rise and legendary Iowa career. It all happened too quickly, she said, and she hadn’t experienced a break from basketball to fully appreciate the journey.

Looking back now, from empty seats during her freshman season during the COVID-19 pandemic to the pandemonium of ear-shattering sound when she broke the women’s and later the men’s all-time scoring record, she can see it.

“[It’s about] just how much things change for not only our program, but for how much things changed for women’s basketball in my time here,” Clark said.

Iowa sold out its regular season tickets, with a waiting list, for a second consecutive season. Students now pay for tickets, when they entered for free in years past. Ticket demand, already high for a visit from USC and Watkins, spiked when the university announced Clark’s jersey retirement ceremony. The average listed price increased 223%, according to VividSeats. It's the hottest basketball game this season, with an average sold price of $343, according to the site.

“I want to say thank you to everybody that’s here today,” Clark told the crowd during the ceremony. “It means a lot to me and I know it probably wasn’t cheap to get in the door.”

Tricia Homann, a lifelong Iowa fan, waited it out as she mulled over paying in the four digits.

“I would pay $1,200,” Homann told Yahoo Sports. “It’s Caitlin and JuJu. How often are you going to see both of them in the same house?”

It will be a handful of years at least until they’re facing off multiple times a year in the WNBA. For now, watching one watch the other from the stands had to do.

Homann found less expensive tickets on Friday and opted to wear her new Dowling Catholic No. 22 Clark jersey her parents gifted her for Christmas. It completed her Clark jersey collection.

Allison Long snagged $84 tickets on Saturday after monitoring the secondary market for months. Her 10-year-old daughter, Lillian Sparks, banked in a shot to defeat Clark in a game of knockout during the star’s 2023 basketball camp in Des Moines. It was after Iowa’s first national championship game, but before Clark mania erupted on her charge to the all-time scoring record. Lillian celebrated as Clark ran around the court chanting “Lilly,” and she received a copy of Clark’s first trading card.

Lillian learned of the surprise mother-daughter trip after a full day of her own basketball games. She waited pre-game in a line stretching two sections long to take a photo with a Clark fathead, an activation for which the arena typically uses mascot Herky. Twenty minutes until tip-off, the concourse cleared out completely and fans buzzed in their seats.

“We’ve played in a lot of great atmospheres,” said USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who kept her team on the court to watch the ceremony. “This was the first time people were in their seat like 10 minutes before the game.”

Before the national title game runs and accolades, Iowa fans were always proud one of their own midwest kids was able to lift their program to heights they’d rarely if ever seen. The loudest roar rivaling any of her previous record-breaking moments came when they heard the self-described “family girl” reference as their own.

“Caitlin, you may be in Indiana now,” Bluder said. “But you’re always a Hawkeye.”

Clark, minutes later with the mic, reminded the 15,000-plus she would be back. The Indiana Fever will play a preseason exhibition game against the Brazilian national team at Carver-Hawkeye in May. Fans are already waiting to snag tickets.

“You better save up,” she said, “because I’m sure it’s going to be pretty expensive.”

That had never been the case before.