Lisa Bluder says ‘things haven’t slowed down for me’ as she mulls post-retirement moves

Former Iowa women’s basketball coach has had quite a summer, surrounded by celebrities and doing things she never previously had the time to experience

Former Iowa basketball head coach Lisa Bluder (right) talks with New York Liberty/U.S. Olympic Team forward Breanna Stewart after a WNBA game in Indianapolis on May 16. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

How’s this for your first few months of retirement:

You’re a guest of Billie Jean King’s at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York, sitting a row behind Academy Award-winner Dustin Hoffman. You’re sitting courtside at a WNBA game, next to television icon David Letterman. You’re waving the green flag at an IndyCar race.

You are Lisa Bluder, who in May retired after 24 years as Iowa’s women’s basketball coach and 40 years as a college head coach. It’s been time to have some fun and do things you couldn’t before do in the summer, when recruiting is paramount.

“Dave and I got to go to the U.S. Open for two days for the women’s and men’s finals,” Bluder said Tuesday from her Solon home. “And it was spectacular.

“Billie Jean King invited us, and it was a thrill. I’ve been a fan of Billie Jean King forever. Billie allowed us to be in the President’s Suite, which is the most-premium seats you can have. We were in the fifth row. It was a dream.”

The time spent watching an Indiana Fever game in Indianapolis with Letterman last month wasn’t by accident.

“I got to meet David Letterman through Randy Edeker, the retired president of Hy-Vee,” Bluder said. “I went to the Newton car race (in July). They asked me to wave the flag to start the race. I’m telling you, that was a rush. That was adrenaline to be able to do that.

“Since I did that, they gave Dave and I a suite right next to Randy’s suite with Hy-Vee (which sponsors a Rahal Letterman Lanigan racecar). So David Letterman was there. When I was over there talking to them, they both said they wanted to go to an Indiana Fever game.

“I said ‘I can make that happen.’ So that’s how that transpired.”

Bluder said she was more focused on the basketball, watching her former player Caitlin Clark and the Fever. Dave Bluder hit it off with Letterman.

“He and Dave, I don’t know who was the goofier of the two of them if you know my husband at all,” she said. “They were having a blast.

“What was fun was hearing from David Letterman that he had been to one Fever game and one Pacers game, and he said the atmosphere was so much better, he enjoyed his experience at the Fever game so much more.

“I think that just speaks volumes about women’s basketball and the energy that’s there right now and the people that want to go out and see it.”

Bluder also has been to WNBA games in Las Vegas and Brooklyn. She had rarely seen the league’s games before this year.

“Summer is brutal on coaches with recruiting and summer workouts and visits and all that sort of thing,” she said. “But I’m sure I’m going to miss it when things slow down for me. Right now, they just haven’t slowed down.”

The most fun Bluder will have this winter, though, will be watching men’s basketball with crowds of a few hundred in places like Alma, Mich., and Appleton, Wis. One of her three children, David Bluder Jr., is a senior on Grinnell College’s men’s team. He has 595 career points.

“That is one of the reasons why it was the right time for me to leave,” Bluder said. “He has one more year of athletics, and I have missed probably 75 percent of his games throughout his career — high school, AAU and college. So it was time for me to be able to watch every single one of his games.

“And I’m going to look forward to doing that. That’s the first thing on my calendar. Have car, will travel.”

Last Saturday at Kinnick Stadium, the Iowa marching band had a 10-minute halftime salute to Bluder. She couldn’t attend because she was being honored at basketball great Nancy Lieberman’s annual Dream Ball Gala for charity.

The band spelled out “Thanks Coach!” and Bluder’s name during its show, and held a banner with Bluder’s image. The show was overwhelmingly popular with the fans.

“What was fun about it was my son was up in the women’s basketball box on the fourth floor (of the press box),” said Bluder. “He was filming it from there.

“And it was funny to hear all the people in the box talking about it. When they exposed my face, everybody just died laughing. It was hilarious.

“It did blow my mind, and I sound like a broken record here, but that was amazing. That they would want to do something like that — I loved working with the band, loved having them with us on Big Ten tournament and NCAA trips.

“For them to do something like that it was, yeah, wow.”

To no surprise, this retirement of Bluder’s won’t be sedentary.

“Right now it’s felt like an extended vacation, almost more a sabbatical than a retirement,” she said. “I think during the winter it’s going to feel a little different for me, definitely. Obviously, I’m going to support the Hawkeyes as much as I can when it doesn’t conflict with David’s games.

“But I’m still trying to decide what it is I can do to give back. My kind of passion is empowering women and building women leaders. So how I can help in that area? That’s what I’m still kind of working on.

“Whether that is speaking, doing some broadcasting, I don’t know where it is yet. But I’m going to figure it out.”