By John Bohnenkamp
Lisa Bluder will be honored for the success she had before she became Iowa’s women’s basketball coach when she joins the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame next March.
Bluder, who coached Drake from 1990-2000 and played basketball at Northern Iowa, will be one of six inductees who will go into the Hall of Fame on March 7 in St. Louis during the Valley’s men’s basketball tournament.
Bluder will be joined in the Hall’s 2025 class by baseball coach Bob Warn of Indiana State, men’s basketball coach Bruce Weber of Southern Illinois, track & field All-American Tyler Mulder of UNI, coach and administrator Betty Wiseman of Belmont, and men’s basketball player Marcellus Sommerville of Bradley. The class was announced Wednesday.
Bluder began her coaching career at St. Ambrose, where she compiled a 169-36 mark in six seasons, leading the school to the NAIA Fab Four in 1989 and 1990. She won Valley tournament titles at Drake in 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000 and won the regular-season title in 1997, 1998 and 2000. She won 20 or more games in five of her last six seasons at Drake, and was a three-time Valley coach of the year.