This story is part of the IndyStar project "Only woman in the room:" How Indy became top city in nation for women sports execs
INDIANAPOLIS -- No one was paying attention back in those days, says Indiana Fever president Kelly Krauskopf. Nobody outside of the very small, hardcore WNBA fan base cared that her team had just pulled off a remarkable 12-year playoff appearance streak, a league record.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThat was the Tamika Catchings era. Imagine if it were the Caitlin Clark era, the Fever making 12 straight playoff appearances and winning a title (which Catchings did in 2012).
Krauskopf knows what that would mean to today's WNBA, to today's Fever fans and the rest of the world who is now paying attention, and who should have been paying attention when Catchings was playing.
Still, Krauskopf doesn't mince words when asked, "How big of a deal do you think Caitlin Clark has been to the explosion of the WNBA?"
"Let's be honest. Caitlin Clark is the explosion of the WNBA. The lift has come with her arrival," Krauskopf said. "It always takes one or two players to take that next lift. And for us and for the league, it's been Caitlin and the fan base that she's brought."
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAnd so now with Krauskopf once again at the helm of the Fever, after spending six years as the Pacers assistant general manager, she has set a big goal. Actually, it's her mission. To get her franchise back to that Catchings era -- but this time with the world watching.
"(I want the Fever) to beat that 12-year playoff record, to become a generational franchise that kids grow up and talk about, like they did with the Colts or Pacers," Krauskopf said. "That they remember their first game, and they've got their first ticket or their first hat."
Most of all, Krauskopf wants to revive the magic that began in 2005 when that playoff streak began.
"That was special to me because during those years, we were still growing a league. We were still growing as a franchise. And to remain at the top is difficult. It's hard to get there, but it's even harder to stay there," she said. "Now, we have this team and this franchise and this league that has really become a part of the American sports conscious."
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThat was something Krauskopf wasn't sure she would ever get to witness.
"I mean, somewhere along the way, I knew it was coming. I didn't know if it was going to be during my generation of leadership, but I knew it was coming," she said. "I just didn't know when."
'I wish someday they would just talk about us'
Krauskopf has long been a champion of women sports. As a basketball player at Texas A&M in the early era of Title IX, the women's locker room was tucked away beneath the bleachers, and it was hideous.
The women on the Texas A&M basketball team in 1980 — still not part of the NCAA, their program in its beginning stages — painted the locker room themselves with paint bought by coach Cherri Rapp with her own money.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementTheir duffel bags were held together with sports tape left over from whatever, more important, sport was done with it. Krauskopf remembers going with her team to JCPenney to search for the cheapest gym bags they could find. They were bright turquoise blue, which didn't come close to matching their maroon and white uniforms, but the players finally had new bags.
Bought with their own money.
"And, you know, we wore the exact same uniform for every single season," Krauskopf said. "Literally, the same uniform. "
Kelly Krauskopf was a three-year letter winner in basketball at Texas A&M.The women played their games at 5 p.m., before the men. The gym would be sprinkled with fans but, after halftime, the women would look up to packed stands. Those people were there waiting to watch the men play.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementKrauskopf, who was told right out of college she wasn't right for a sports television job because "women don't know how to cover sports," went on to manage rosters, build teams, balance budgets and negotiate trades at the highest levels of basketball.
When the WNBA was formed in 1996, Krauskopf was there from its inception, starting her career with the league as the first director of basketball operations at the headquarters in New York City. When Indy was named an expansion city a few years later, Krauskopf got a call from Donnie Walsh.
The Pacers president and general manager wanted Krauskopf to come to Indy to lead the Fever as general manager.
Before the Fever's inaugural game in 2000, Krauskopf found herself standing on the court in disbelief that this was really happening. The year before, the team had to sell 5,500 season tickets to secure a WNBA franchise. Former U.S. Senator Birch Bayh — also the author of Title IX — bought the 5,500th ticket. He was honored at the opening game.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"We are standing off to the side before we walk out on the court. It's a sellout and I'm standing there with (Bayh), and we're looking around and there's 16,000 people, standing room only," Krauskopf said. "And I said to him, 'Look at this place. Can you believe this? This would never have happened had it not been for you."
Yet, as the season played out and even as the Fever went on that historic playoff run, it seemed nobody outside of the arena was really paying attention.
'I wish someday they would just talk about us'
Krauskopf remembers driving to work every morning listening to sports talk radio and feeling like the league was invisible.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"And I was like, 'I wish someday they would just talk about us, you know, talk about the game last night, those little moments of media coverage or being part of a conversation in sports,'" she said. "I knew, once you started that, you would see the crowds that we have, you would see the fan base that we have. So, of course, we all dreamt about it."
Then, as Krauskopf took the job in 2018 to become the first woman to be an assistant general manager in the NBA with the Pacers, she turned her focus away from the Fever to their male counterparts in Indy for the next six years.
Of course, what was happening in the WNBA and with the Fever was catching her attention. She watched as Clark came onto the scene her rookie season and that explosion in interest, finally, from the outside world.
In October, Krauskopf was asked to return to the Fever as team president, as former team president Allison Barber left to lead the Marvella Project. Coming back to the franchise she built from the ground up to be a perennial contender was where Krauskopf wanted to be.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"I mean, this is my DNA. Everything about running a team, running a basketball program, if you will, it's really who I am," Krauskopf said when the team announced her hiring. "It's my passion.”
And while Kraukopf is well aware of who her marquee player is and who the face of the franchise is, what she loves most is that other players across the league are getting recognized as the elite athletes they are. She loves that the tide Clark started didn't wane as she was injured and didn't play for most of the season.
"There was concern of, 'Would the fans fall off or would they stay?' But, the fans that came with her stuck with us. That's what Caitlin brought. It took a player like Caitlin to introduce the W to many fans who weren't watching during that 12-year playoff streak that we were on," Krauskopf said. "There'll be more (Caitlin Clarks) now that there's more eyeballs and more fans.
"And that's why it's thrilling to be a part of something so special now and to see how these women are celebrated and are revered for being great athletes and great community pillars."
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFollow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Fever president Kelly Krauskopf: 'Caitlin Clark is the explosion of WNBA'
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