Erma and Caitlin

I’ll admit it. I became a “March Madness” fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes over the past few weeks.

I’m guessing some of you did, too. As I watched Sunday’s championship game, I got to thinking of the thousands of little girls out there that look up the Iowa phenom, Caitlin Clark.

Then I thought about who was my “role model” growing up. It was Erma Bombeck, a far cry from any college or professional athlete. If there was an Erma Bombeck fan club for kids, I’m guessing I was probably the president, vice president, secretary and treasurer.

The excitement and awareness that Caitlin Clark has created for the game of women’s basketball is huge. I bet if we walked into every elementary classroom in the Brandon Valley School District, the large majority of little girls likely has an inkling of just who this girl is.

That’s probably not the case for Erma. In fact, if we walked into those same classrooms, I’m betting I’d be met with a sea of “who’s that” faces. Their teachers just might scratch their heads on that one, too.

My ‘fandom’ for Emra began sometime back in the 1970s. I well remember the excitement of scoping out her weekly column in the Sunday Minneapolis Tribune. It was always the first section of the inches-thick newspaper that I’d grab. Her humor was fun, simple and relatable, even to a kid like me, growing up in a small, southeastern Minnesota community.

I have to give Erma a few props. She’s likely one of the reasons I ventured into a career in community journalism, and why writing a weekly column is something that I can’t imagine not doing.

Oh sure, there are moments when an idea for a column evades me, but for the most part, I was blessed with the gift of gab with a bit of humor sprinkled in, which makes for a good combination when it comes to column writing.

Caitlin, on the other hand, was blessed with athleticism and the determination to become the one of the best females to ever play the game. I can’t imagine the number of future female players that she’s inspired in her yet young life. And she’s not done yet. She’s predicted to be the WNBA’s No. 1 draft pick.

Erma and Caitlin. Two very different women in two very different careers inspiring hopefuls like me and young girls in elementary classrooms across our nation.