"It can destroy families, destroy careers": When former Iowa HC Lisa Bluder shared her views on gambling, while promoting her husband David's novel

Former Iowa coach Lisa Bluder turned the Iowa Hawkeyes into a household name during her 24-year tenure at the helm. At the tail end of her career, she reached two national championship games while presiding over the wildly popular Caitlin Clark era. After Clark departed for the WNBA, Bluder announced her retirement last year.

Clark was supported in her role at Iowa by her eldest daughter, Hannah Bluder who was the Director of Operations before her retirement. The rest of her children - Emma and David Bluder Jr. - often attended Iowa games alongside her husband, David Bluder.

Away from the court, Lisa Bluder once showed her support for her husband's career as an author in 2020 when he released his debut book titled "The Great Gamble: At What Price." She posted about the book on Instagram and during an interview with "The Athletic" during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the former Hawkeyes coach shared her views on gambling, which was a prominent theme in her husband's book.

"I’m anti-gambling all the way because I think it can get people into a lot of trouble," Lisa Buder said. "And I think it can destroy families, destroy careers, and so I’m not into gambling.

"I think that I’ve probably seen it and not even realized it. And that’s the scary part, right? What’s going on around us sometimes we don’t know about and that makes it even worse, in my opinion. I’m sure I’ve seen it and not even known about it."

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Lisa Bluder and her husband were matched by his mother

In an interview with the "Des Moines Register" in 2019, David Bluder revealed that he met Lisa Bluder in 1979 after his mother played matchmaker after meeting the legendary Iowa Hawkeyes coach working at her parents' restaurant in Iowa. The pair met, started dating and wed in 1984.

“My mom wrote a letter and said, ‘I’ve found a girlfriend for you,’” David Bluder said. “'She’s cute and bubbly and blonde.’ My mom was like the Fiddler on the Roof matchmaker.”

After a Hale Bopp concert in 1997, David got into a serious car accident that left him in a coma for three days. After that, he gave up his career to become a full-time dad while Lisa Bluder worked her way in the college basketball world. She was the Drake Bulldogs's coach at the time before taking the Iowa Hawkeyes job in 2000.