PETA Furious With Geno Auriemma, UConn For Goat Ceremony.

UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma is officially the GOAT of college hoops, securing his 1,217th career win to add on to his 11 national championships. The university decided to honor the hoops legend in a way that has infuriated People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

In a celebration that took place this past Wednesday, the University of Connecticut presented Auriemma with the gift of a live goat to symbolize his status as the “GOAT” of college hoops. But while Auriemma was only a little bit amused by the unique gift he was given, PETA has complained that the goat looked stressed and was likely extremely uncomfortable in the arena with all of the bright lights and loud fans.

In a statement shared with TMZ Sports, PETA complained that the collar the goat was wearing “was digging into his neck” and called on UConn to ensure that this stunt would be the last with a live animal.

STORRS, CONNECTICUT – NOVEMBER 20: Connecticut Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma is presented with a goat after becoming the NCAA all-time basketball wins leader at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion on November 20, 2024 in Storrs, Connecticut. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images)

“The University of Connecticut can’t ‘conn’ people into thinking it’s okay to subject a stressed-out animal out to the chaos of bright lights and screaming fans,” PETA said in their statement.

The animal was ultimately returned to the local farm that had lent it to the school for the event. Auriemma pet it while spectators took photos with it, but there wasn’t much more that happened.

Auriemma recently passed Tara VanDerveer for the most wins in college basketball history. VanDerveer had a seven-year head start on Auriemma, having gotten her first coaching job at Idaho all the way back in 1978 while Auriemma didn’t start coaching until 1985.

But with VanDerveer retiring from her longtime job at Stanford at the end of last season, Auriemma was finally in a position to pass her for the all-time wins record permanently.

He now boasts the most wins and national title wins of any basketball coach in history.