Reusse: Caitlin Clark has been a story worth chasing, but it’s getting harder to keep up

You always hear that getting old is tough. I disagree. Being old is what’s tough.

A couple of years ago, when I was closer to 75 than 80, I was a ball of fire. I saw this young lady from Iowa on TV trying to bring back her Hawkeyes at Michigan with the most alarming display of ultra-long jumpers ever witnessed in the women’s game.

So inspired by this, I drove to Des Moines two days later to interview sources at Dowling Catholic, her high school, and then went to Iowa City to watch her play against the Gophers.

This was quite an energetic show of foresight, since the college sophomore was Caitlin Clark, and a year later, she would become the No. 1 arena-packing phenomenon in the history of women’s basketball — and at this moment, the entirety of American basketball.

Target Center has benefited considerably from the arrival of this meteor. The old joint hosted the Big Ten women’s tournament in March 2023 and set it up to hold half a house. There were a tournament-record 47,923 tickets sold over five days, and the Iowa-Ohio State title game drew a crowd announced at 9,505.

That was deemed to be impressive at the time. And then, to start the next season, Clark and the Hawkeyes put an announced 55,646 into Kinnick Stadium for an exhibition game with DePaul.

Clark was in Minneapolis twice during the 2023-24 season: First, it was for the last game of the conference schedule at Williams Arena on Feb. 29. The Hawkeyes’ visit was declared an early sellout, with attendance announced at the Barn’s official capacity of 14,625.

A week later, the Big Ten tournament was back in Target Center. Total tickets sold were a record-smashing 109,000, with the Hawkeyes winning a second straight Big Ten title.

Which gets us to Clark’s mentioned visit to Target Center as a member of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, and also to the difference between getting old and being old.

I have come up with a simple rule to judge the difference: “Being Old” is when you would rather walk up steps than down them.

For instance, I went to the Boston area in early September to be in attendance when St. Thomas made its visit to play the Harvard Crimson.

Harvard Stadium, opened in 1903, has been downsized through the years. Yet, it remains a large edifice and without any of those fancy new people movers called elevators.

Meaning, the one way to reach the pressbox on the roof was to take the interior stairwell — 102 steps. That was a three-stopper for me, and I swear there was a hello from a ghostly figure identifying himself as Grantland Rice on the third landing.

But the deal was … you were an old guy going up the steps. If your ticker held up, you weren’t going down. It was much more daunting going down.

Old. Bad knees. You took that fall a couple of months later at the Concordia gym in St. Paul — going down metal bleachers. Saved by a well-padded posterior rather than landing nose first.

So now, Caitlin was here with the Fever to play the Lynx on July 14, and she filled up Target Center, of course, and Indiana rallied in the fourth quarter for an 81-74 upset win.

It occurred during the game that Monika Czinano, of Watertown, Minn., and Caitlin’s center for her first three seasons with the Hawkeyes, might be in the building. As she was, high in a corner with her sister, Maggie (a Gopher), and mom, Theresa. I connected via cellphone and made plans to meet them as they made the trip toward the floor.

Monika was waylaid by Iowans wanting her autograph in the middle of the first deck. Old sportswriter walked up there; then followed the Czinanos through the rows, toward the floor.

As I waited to make the last couple of steps, Clark came rushing out to greet Monika. There’s video evidence that Caitlin then gently placed an object, in a wrapping, on the side of the court.

I missed that, making the large last step to reach the floor, then started walking along the sideline. There was a feeling as though my right foot had nudged something. I glanced but was more interested in the Caitlin-Monika exchange.

After a moment, Clark came over. Yes, I had Caitlin Fever well before it was fashionable, but she wasn’t mistaking me for a lingering sideline reporter … I knew that.

And then Caitlin Clark, who will be here with the Fever in another jammed Target Center on Saturday, on a night her hoops hero, Maya Moore, is having No. 23 retired by the Lynx … well, that was when the current phenom of American basketball gave me this exclusive quote:

“You stepped on my cellphone.”