UCONN Parade: Biggest event in Hartford in 20 years

[AfgHusky15]

Over 200,000 fans showed up in the basketball capital of the world! Nice to see Husky Nation come out and show some love for the champs!

http://www.wfsb.com/story/25233850/hartford-parade-to-honor-uconn-basketball-teams

 

[ASweet3781]

Great crowd, great day, great time to be a Husky.

 

[Chief00]

I liked what Geno said about people needing to get to the games too.

 

[GoldCstHusky]

Especially the football games. HFD has it right, they should have had this parade as a prelude to the Spring Game. Parade + tailgating + speech by the politicians, coaches, and players + transition into focusing the attention on building a program whose success will take us to the next level in conference realignment (or whose failure will hold us back). As happy I am with the show of support for the basketball teams, what keeps it from being a home run celebration was the loss of a major opportunity to focus some of this goodwill in a way to carry over to the football program.

 

[mjmoney23]

It was much more packed than in 2011. Does anyone remember the attendance that year?

 

[stephen Henry]

The announced crowd in 2011 was 300,000. They also mentioned that figure during the one of the speeches today. That was probably the single largest event in state history.

 

[UCweCONN]

It was much more packed than in 2011. Does anyone remember the attendance that year?

I was there today and in 2011 and would say today's attendance was double. Much of that was attributable to the draw of the women's team's fans. There were quite a few gray haired ladies cheering much more enthusiastically for the women than the men. I was there further indoctrinating my kids into being UCONN fans. I agree that Geno's comments about attendance were spot on. He was basically subtly re-stating his previous 'our fans are spoiled' comments. I took it to heart because I had season tickets for football and only attended three games and have attended less regular season games recently than in the past. I will again get season tickets to football and get basketball season tickets for the first time. Regardless of the quality of football on the field, I plan on being at every game. It's more critical than ever to project a viable fan base to the power conferences.

 

[stephen Henry]

Sorry, I meant 300,000 in 2004 not 2011. Having said that today's crowd was exceptional raucous and the weather was great. Both teams know how much their championships mean to the state. Go UConn!

 

[superjohn]

Did anyone hear Malloy butcher Auriemma's name several times. I thought it was bizarre that the governor had no clue how to pronounce Geno's name. No comment on his politics but I thought it was pretty embarrassing.

 

[MattMang23]

I was there today. It was my first parade. My buddy I went with was there for all four parades and said 2004 had about double today's attendance. He said today was bigger than 2011 though but said 1999 was the second biggest.

 

[UCweCONN]

Did anyone hear Malloy butcher Auriemma's name several times. I thought it was bizarre that the governor had no clue how to pronounce Geno's name. No comment on his politics but I thought it was pretty embarrassing.

Yeah, I was at the rally and the crowd gave him hell and Geno reacted when he said it. Malloy was so clueless when we booed he apologized for his voice being so hoarse. He had no clue we were booing him for killing Geno's name. From his reaction, it seemed like he didn't even know Geno's name.

 

[UCweCONN]

I think he pronounced it Or-ee-anna.

 

[intlzncster]

Did anyone hear Malloy butcher Auriemma's name several times. I thought it was bizarre that the governor had no clue how to pronounce Geno's name. No comment on his politics but I thought it was pretty embarrassing.

Maybe he's going for the Mayor 'Mumbles' Menino angle?

 

[superjohn]

He wasn't even close with his pronunciation and he tried it like 3 times. Anyways the parade looked like a great time, wish I could have been there.

 

[alexd]

Did anyone hear Malloy butcher Auriemma's name several times. I thought it was bizarre that the governor had no clue how to pronounce Geno's name. No comment on his politics but I thought it was pretty embarrassing.

Malloy has tried to act like he's a passionate UCONN hoops fan recently. I especially loved his comments recently about how he watched "all the league tournament games".

 

[UConnDad]

The parade was a great time. Geno and Kevin were both awesome. There were more people at the Capitol than 2004. Don't know about the rest of the route. 2011 was a much smaller crowd. When Warde called on Shabazz, everyone on stage supported him 100%. I like it! I would highly recommend the next championship parade to any who missed it.

 

[intlzncster]

Malloy has tried to act like he's a passionate UCONN hoops fan recently. I especially loved his comments recently about how he watched "all the league tournament games".

Politicians are so freaking clueless. I still don't understand why these people get to run things. Is basketball the most important thing? No, obviously not, but for duckcks sake, it's your own (very small) state!

 

[BugsyCT]

Amazing that we've had dual championships and parades for it twice now, and no other school has ever done this even once. Incredible what a basketball empire UConn has built.

 

[ffg53]

I think he pronounced it Or-ee-anna.

John Travolta's going to play him the movie version, I hear.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Over 200,000 fans showed up in the basketball capital of the world! Nice to see Husky Nation come out and show some love for the champs!

http://www.wfsb.com/story/25233850/hartford-parade-to-honor-uconn-basketball-teams

I was there today. It was my first parade. My buddy I went with was there for all four parades and said 2004 had about double today's attendance. He said today was bigger than 2011 though but said 1999 was the second biggest.

I would say today was close to 2004, but larger than 1999. But that is based one my memory and my view today. No matter, it was a hell of a day.

 

[Adios]

Amazing that we've had dual championships and parades for it twice now, and no other school has ever done this even once. Incredible what a basketball empire UConn has built.

The beauty of this is that it is near the birthplace of basketball. I think our football program has a very good chance to be solid, too.

 

[BugsyCT]

Saw this on social media:

 

[intlzncster]

 

[Waquoit]

My buddy I went with was there for all four parades and said 2004 had about double today's attendance.

Only if he was seeing double.

 

[Henry]

Great time at the parade. Wall to wall people. UCONN by itself can boost our economy.