Within the realm of Cyclone athletics, there is one program that epitomizes high-profile success more than any other.

Obviously, this program isn’t one of the two highest-profile sports. As coaches Larry Eustachy and Dan McCarney struggle to stay above .500 and .000, respectively, they draw the fans but don’t win the games.

Coach Bobby Douglas’ wrestlers have maintained incredible success since the program’s inception, but they can’t bring fans to Hilton.

The Cyclone hockey team and Head Coach Al Murdoch can pack the Ice Arena and routinely post 20-win seasons, but they still lack the respect that comes with official NCAA status.

If you’re looking for high-profile success at Iowa State, you’re obviously looking for Coach Bill Fennelly and the Cyclone women’s basketball team.

What’s ironic, even comical, about this fact is that just four years ago, Cyclone women’s basketball was neither high-profile nor successful.

When Fennelly took the program’s reins in 1995, he inherited a team that rebounded from a 2-25 1991-92 season to post back-to-back 8-19 records.

The Cyclones were 39-113 for the ’90s and never averaged more than 944 fans per game over the course of a season.

In just three and a half years, Fennelly has taught the team to compete and has taught the Ames community to love women’s basketball.

“A lot of people have said that the turnaround in attendance is more astonishing than the turnaround in our record,” Fennelly said. “People who were around when 200-300 people were coming to women’s games can’t fathom that many people wanting to support the team.”

In only his first season at the helm, Fennelly took the conference doormats, picked to finish last in the preseason, and won 17 games, including their first 12 of the year.

The Cyclones played an exciting style of basketball that emphasized the three-point attack, finished the year near the middle of the Big 12 standings and began to draw curious fans to Hilton Coliseum.

The next year, Fennelly’s team really came alive, winning nine conference games, including a 74-56 thrashing of No. 9 Texas (their first-ever victory over a top 10 school) and four conference road wins, including their first-ever at Oklahoma and Missouri.

After the exciting season, the Cyclones headed to the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history.

If Cyclone fans were afraid of a letdown in 1996-97, they had nothing to worry about. Fennelly’s Cyclones again outdid themselves, posting the best record in school history at 25-8.

They placed second in the Big 12, beat the No. 5 Texas Tech Lady Raiders, 82-73, and broke into the AP top 25 for the first time ever.

In addition, they hosted the Mideast regional and won the school’s first NCAA tournament game, 79-76, over Kent.

Perhaps even more importantly, Fennelly’s Cyclones attracted the community. Averaging nearly 4,000 fans per game, ISU broke the single-game attendance mark on six separate occasions during the 1997-98 season.

“It really speaks to the kind of kids we have here,” Fennelly said. “People want to support them, and they like them as human beings as well as basketball players.”

So far in 1998-99, the Cyclones are again on pace to shatter both attendance and won/loss records.

Opening the season 13-2 (5-1 in the Big 12), the young Cyclone team has proven they’re for real and that Fennelly isn’t going away anytime soon.

So where did this savior of Cyclone basketball come from?

Raised in Davenport, Iowa, Fennelly prepared for a head coaching career with 13 seasons of experience as an assistant.

After successful stints at William Penn College, Fresno State and Notre Dame, Fennelly was finally given his first shot at head coaching at Toledo in 1988.

While the Cyclones were trying desperately to win even a single conference game, Fennelly was leading the Rockets to unheralded success.

By 1991, he had led Toledo to the top of the Mid-American Conference as well as the NCAA tournament.

Before he left for central Iowa in 1995, Fennelly had posted six 20+ win seasons, participated in six postseason tournaments (including three NCAA berths and two wins) and won the MAC conference championship and tournament three times.

Fennelly broke over 100 school and MAC records while at Toledo, posted an immaculate 112-28 record over conference opponents and was honored in 1991 as the District IV coach of the year — an honor nearly eclipsed last season when he was second only to Pat Summit of Tennessee in balloting for AP coach of the year.

Even more important to Fennelly, however, was the fact that 97.4 percent of his student-athletes at Toledo went on to earn their degrees.

One of those graduates, 1992-93 MAC player of the year and honorable mention All-American Latoja Harris, followed Fennelly to Iowa State as an assistant coach.

“We have a great program here, and Coach Fennelly has done a good job of recruiting great kids for us to work with,” Harris said. “I expected him to do great things here because he did at Toledo.”

Harris is the only person so far to experience Fennelly both as a player and an assistant.

“‘Intense’ is a good word to describe him,” Harris said, “and if a coach is intense with his players, I think it makes the players that much better.

“He was an intense person to play for, but I knew that he would do anything for me as a player and especially now as a coach.”

Fennelly lists his high school coach at Davenport West as well as his collegiate mentor, Bob Spencer, as two of his biggest inspirations.

He also points to the contributions of his father.

“He wasn’t a basketball coach,” Fennelly said, “but he taught me discipline, he taught me that you have to earn respect and he taught me that you should be accountable and responsible for the things you do.”

Finally, Fennelly feels that his wife of 16 years, Deb, and his two sons, Billy and Steven, have taught him a great deal about compassion and understanding.

“They’ve taught me a lot about dealing with people,” Fennelly said, “how to know what they’re feeling and how to support them when they’re down.

“Those are the people that can take the blame for what I’m like today.”

Fans afraid that Fennelly may be leaving Iowa State soon for greener pastures, a la Tim Floyd, need only look at a statement he made when he arrived in 1995.

“I know it’s a big clich‚ nowadays to talk about dreams and aspirations,” Fennelly said. “But for 20 years I’ve been a women’s basketball coach, and for 20 years I’ve dreamed of coming to this school to coach and to hopefully finish my career and to build something in this state and for this university.”

Even as late as last week, Fennelly stuck to his commitment.

“It’s not fair to say that I’ll never leave, but I don’t think there’s anything that could lure me away from here now,” Fennelly said. “There’s no job out there that, if they called me today and said I could have it, that I’d leave this one for.

“I am one of the very lucky people that has the position they always wanted. I truly believe I have the best job in the country.”

Bill Fennelly may very well have the best coaching job in the country.

But only because he made it so.