AMES — Bill Fennelly is wrapping up his 30th season as Iowa State’s head coach, and he has cemented himself not only as a Cyclone great but a women’s basketball great as well.

Fennelly was born and raised in Davenport, Iowa, but started his coaching career as a student assistant at William Penn. His ultimate goal was always to coach the Cyclones and stay in Ames for the long haul.

“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, to hopefully finish my career and to build something in this state and for this university,” Fennelly said after being hired in 1995. “It is a dream come true for me and my family.”

Now, Fennelly is nearing the end of his 30th season at the helm of the Cyclones’ women’s basketball program. With a lifetime contract secured after the 2006-07 season, Fennelly has said that this is his final stop.

“I don’t know how I got so lucky. I mean, I’m living a dream, I really am,” Fennelly said. “I got to do this in my home state. I got to do it in front of my parents and my wife’s parents. My son is on the staff, and my family is involved.”

Fennelly’s first head coaching job was at Toledo, where he spent seven years. He also spent time as an assistant coach at William Penn, Fresno State and Notre Dame. 

With 36 head coaching years under his belt, Fennelly has the third most wins of all active Division I coaches, with 797, with one game left to play in the 2024-25 season. 

One of the two coaches ahead of him is all-time wins leader and UConn head coach Geno Auriemma, who Fennelly coached against as an assistant when he was at Notre Dame and when Auriemma was an assistant at Virginia. The two have a long history, and Fennelly talked about the support he has from Auriemma.

“Geno [Auriemma] has always been very gracious, very nice to me. Obviously, with his stature, it’s not like we talk daily,” Fennelly said. “He’s always been someone that has been very supportive of what we do, how we do it, you know, we’ve played them a few times in the tournament. He might be the greatest coach of any sport ever.”

Gaining that kind of support from one of the best to ever do it is not easy, but it is what Fennelly has done to the culture at Iowa State. In fact, the culture and excitement the Fennelly family has built surrounding Iowa State women’s basketball was one of his first goals.

“Our job here is to build a program the university will be proud of, the city and the state,” Fennelly said in 1995.

The year before Fennelly was hired, the average attendance at home games was 733 people, but has grown exponentially and has ranked in the top 10 nationally in 24 of his years coaching Iowa State. In the 2023-24 season, Iowa State ranked sixth with an average of 10,007 attendees per game.

“I’ve been lucky that I’ve worked at a place that appreciated women’s basketball and appreciated what we’ve tried to do,” Fennelly said. “I know exactly where we belong, we’ve stayed in our own lane and hopefully done that the right way.”

The Cyclones are not the only Iowa State program that has found recent success. The football team recently notched its first-ever double-digit win season, and the men’s basketball team has been ranked in the top 10 all season after a trip to the Sweet 16 a season ago.

“I’ve never been at Iowa State in a time when it’s better when you look across the board,” Fennelly said. “You know, football, men’s basketball, volleyball, wrestling, it doesn’t matter. I mean, we want to be part of that.”

A coach cannot change a program that much alone, though, and Fennelly understands that. He has coached plenty of great players at Iowa State, including 11 All-Americans. That list of players includes all-time scoring leader Ashley Joens, current Minnesota Lynx forward Bridget Carleton and current sophomore center Audi Crooks.

“The reason we’ve had some level of success is I’ve had really good players and been blessed to have a staff that’s pretty cohesive over the years,” Fennelly said. “It’s been quite a journey and one that I don’t take for granted ever.”

It also means something to the players when someone with Fennelly’s caliber sees something in them, which is something that has become more prominent in the age of the transfer portal.

“When I was in the portal and he was recruiting me, he saw a lot of different aspects in me,” junior guard/forward Sydney Harris said. “Our team already has a lot of stuff, so just whatever coach Fennelly needs me to bring that day.”

Another one of the all-time greats and someone Fennelly trusts is current fifth-year senior guard Emily Ryan, the Cyclones all-time leader in assists, who has recently moved to 10th on the NCAA women’s college basketball assists list. Fennelly has trusted Ryan ever since she arrived in Ames, and she has started all but eight games in her career. 

“It comes from the amount of belief and amount of confidence Coach Fennelly has instilled in me. He trusts me, so that helps other people trust me as well,” Ryan said. “He’s super receptive to the feedback we have. It’s a two-way street; he’s giving us feedback, and we’re giving him feedback. It’s something that’s really empowering and allows us to be successful.”

Outside of being a good basketball coach, Fennelly supports his players and staff in any possible way, including defending how good his players are. In the Big 12 preseason awards, Ryan was not listed on any All-Big 12 teams, and Fennelly was not too pleased.

“Coach Fennelly is someone I can always count on to have my back in any situation,” Ryan said. “Preseason awards mean pretty much nothing to me, and I think Coach Fennelly also realized that, but he’s gonna stand up for his team regardless.”

At 67 years old, there is no say in how much longer Fennelly will coach at Iowa State, but the current sophomore class seems to be keeping him young.

“I think it’s probably the closest group I’ve been to in a long time,” Fennelly said. “I think they understood where we were.”

Crooks, forward Addy Brown and guards Arianna Jackson and Kelsey Joens put together one of the most impressive freshman performances as a group ever and did not care for a ‘rebuilding year.’

“There’s a number of pieces to it, but three of them are from Iowa, they all committed early, they’ve all been connected early,” Fennelly said. “They understood maybe a little more than most freshmen, the thing that they could do for our program and for me.”

Regardless of how long Fennelly coaches at Iowa State, his impact will forever be felt. Fennelly’s son, Billy, is an assistant coach for the Cyclones, and his wife, Deb, is also very involved. The Fennellys will always be Cyclones.

“Nothing has kept me here. I’ve been blessed,” Fennelly said.