Fans pack Minneapolis women’s sports bar for the NCAA Women’s Final Four

It was a raucous scene Friday night at Minneapolis’ dedicated women’s sports bar, with fans packed inside to watch the Final Four of the women’s college basketball playoffs.

Dozens crowded into A Bar of Their Own, which opened in February in the city’s Seward neighborhood and prides itself on highlighting women’s sports.

The biggest contingent Friday consisted of fans of the Iowa Hawkeyes and star player Caitlin Clark. Around 10 patrons were wearing Iowa shirts in the bar about an hour before the start of the match against the University of Connecticut. Several Iowa fans admitted they wouldn’t mind if Connecticut won since Twin Cities native Paige Bueckers plays for the Huskies.

Terri Keacher, however, didn’t have any mixed feelings about wanting Bueckers’ team to lose.

“I feel for her, I think she’s a great player, but my heart belongs to the Hawkeyes,” said Keacher, wearing yellow Iowa pajama pants as she sat at the bar with a friend. “Once a Hawkeye, you’re always a Hawkeye.”

Abby DeThorne, coach for the University of Minnesota’s cheer team, was also rooting for Iowa. But she said she’s fine if things don’t go Iowa’s way.

“I‘d be really happy to see either team win, just because they’ve both been doing a really great job this whole season,” she said.

On the other end of the bar was a gathering of South Carolina fans, watching with joy as their team crushed North Carolina State. Em Harding, a U graduate student, attended South Carolina as an undergrad and ran cross country and track there. She wants Iowa to win so the Gamecocks get a shot at avenging last year’s loss to the Hawkeyes.

“I don’t personally like them and I wouldn’t cheer for them in any game really, but I want revenge,” said Harding.

After arriving at the bar wearing her South Carolina gear, Harding and her partner found a couple of other Gamecocks fans to watch the game with. Some who didn’t make it in time to grab a table were milling around on the sidewalk, occasionally looking through the window to see what the score was.

The crowd consisted mostly of women, but there were a few tables of men watching the games as well. The bar’s owner, Jillian Hiscock, said she thinks it’s a special time for women’s sports, and for women’s fans in the Twin Cities.

“It’s just this perfect storm of an increase of exposure for the incredible product these athletes are putting on the court,” she said.