Just four years after San Antonio hosted its first NCAA Men’s Final Four, the first Women’s Final Four came to town in 2002. The NCAA’s long-standing ties with the Alamo City were truly starting to blossom. In the championship game, an NCAA Women’s Final Four record of almost 30,000 fans showed up to watch one of the greatest collegiate teams to ever play in the 2002 Connecticut Huskies. Fans were left with many positive impressions of the city thanks to a combination of San Antonio hospitality and the Huskies’ undefeated season.
Duke and Oklahoma clashed in the first of two semifinal games. The game remained close until Oklahoma opened it up late, running away with a double-digit victory. Tennessee hoped to dethrone an undefeated Connecticut team in the next game, but their dreams were soon dashed as the Huskies dominated, winning by 23 points. In the championship game, the Huskies cruised, winning by double digits to come away with their third title. With the win, they capped off a 39-0 season, becoming just the fourth team in women’s college basketball to ever go undefeated.
The championship game drew an NCAA Women’s Final Four attendance record of 29,619 fans, a record that still stands. It wasn’t the first time the Alamodome would host the event, and not the first time the Huskies would win it either. The Women’s Final Four returned to San Antonio in 2010, where Connecticut captured the title with yet another undefeated 39-0 season. The event has returned one time since, in 2021, when the entire tournament was held around San Antonio due to COVID-19. A testament to San Antonio’s success in hosting sporting events, the Women’s Final Four is slated to return for a fourth time, in 2029.