GameDay Conor is Everywhere
By Peter Nelson
Illustration by Tom Richmond
It is March 31, 2018, and Huskies baseball is taking on the Hartford Hawks at Dunkin’ Park, home of the Hartford Yard Goats. “Do you have a game host we can borrow?” the team asks Goats director of event services Conor Geary.
“I thought about it and said, ‘Sure.’ I host the game. I kill it.” After the Huskies win 1–0, the UConn Athletics contingent has another question for Geary: “You were really good. Are you at all interested in talking to us about doing some stuff with UConn?”
And that’s how the institution that is GameDay Conor came to be a Husky.
He’s the arena/field/stadium host, whose job it is to get the fans into the game. He’s the guy you don’t see on television because on television, between quarters or halves or innings or during time-outs, they cut to a commercial. At a live event, when the game stops, somebody has to entertain the fans before they get out their phones and stop paying attention altogether.
The Hero Among Us spot, the Lucky Shot and Spot Shot challenges, the Half-Court Shot, the Junior Husky Starting Lineup, the Honorary Kid Captain award, the T-shirt Cannon, and the Sock Toss all need a master of ceremonies. And who else is going to launch the wave and lead the fan sing-along of “Sweet Caroline”?
UConn wanted him to start with a football game, says Geary, but he had too many fall schedule conflicts — which is how he got thrown straight into the deep end: “My first men’s game was Dan Hurley’s first game. My first women’s game was probably Geno’s 900th game.” It was 2018.
“There had been a tremendous amount of success, and the fan expectations were high,” he says. “The women hadn’t won a national championship since 2016, but they always had March aspirations. The men had last won in 2014, but Coach Hurley was able to have the team really shine and perform. The venues regularly sold out, in Hartford and in Storrs, for both men and women. That provides an electricity. You hear other coaching staff talk about it. Coming to UConn is different from other institutions. Having a full house of rabid fans, with 5,000 students in the student section at Gampel Pavilion, makes my job easier and more fun.”
And having Geary at the helm of those game experiences, on the microphone, leading that fan experience, has upped the energy and the expectations for what those games are going to feel like.
It’s been said that a basketball team’s “sixth man” is the crowd. In that sense, GameDay Conor coaches the sixth man. And UConn has recognized the value of his contribution. “I have three championship rings,” he says. “The 2023 men’s, the 2024 men’s, and the 2025 women’s.”
The
Mullins
Moment
Geary was flying back from working the West Regional while the UConn men were clawing back against Duke in the East Regional. While he was deplaning in Chicago, “The Shot” went in — and he had to let out a silent celebratory scream.
Jennifer Griffin ’99 (CLAS), ’10 MBA, an associate director of admissions, began hiring Geary to emcee admitted-student events in 2022. “Conor’s role doesn’t begin and end with basketball. He rolls with anything you throw at him and honestly is just genuinely pumped to be there,” says Griffin. “Watch him teach the UConn chant to thousands of admitted students at the UConn Bound Day welcome ceremony and try to find a face that isn’t excited for the next four years.”
After each basketball season, Geary is back to, among other things, baseball — UConn and Yard Goats. Tonight’s a slow one at Dunkin’, where the Goats are playing the Richmond Flying Squirrels. The Squirrels are riding a 10-game winning streak and the Goats aren’t, the night is cool, and it rained earlier — you can count the number of people in the right-field bleachers on two hands and a foot. “Hey, ump,” someone yells. “If you had one more eye, you’d be a cyclops!”
“It’s a Wednesday in April,” says Geary. “In midsummer on a weekend, this place will be full.” Tonight, he has his work cut out for him. He’ll pull out the Wallet Shuffle, the Baby Goat Race, the Blindfolded Buddy Beacon, the Goat Rodeo, and, of course, “Sweet Caroline.”
It helps that Geary has been honing the art of field hosting since he was a student at Siena College in Albany, New York. “My senior year, I was student body president, so I got a call from our administrators saying they needed me to be the mascot, Bernie the St. Bernard, for a game because the regular mascot was sick. I politely declined, and they politely insisted, and I politely declined, and they vehemently insisted. Turned out, I had a great time. I loved it. It was the anonymity, the access, being on the court. It was really, really fun. I enjoyed the game, but I really loved the theater of it all.”
Geary grew up acting in community theater, children’s theater, and musical theater from the time he was 8 years old. He was born in Hartford and grew up in Manchester until sixth grade, when his family moved to East Hartford. His mother worked for the State of Connecticut as a disability rights and child advocate. His father was executive director of a nonprofit that managed group homes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “I was always kind of an outgoing kid,” says Geary.
He stayed in theater during college but realized his future led elsewhere. “I was in ‘The Tempest.’ I did ‘Proof.’ I did ‘Doubt.’ But I wasn’t a good enough singer, and I wasn’t a talented enough actor. So I got a business degree, and I minored in philosophy. I thought I’d end up being some entry-level investment banker at Merrill Lynch after graduation.”
Ironically, giving up show business led him back to show business.
No matter the place or team, this big-bearded bear of a man with a bright smile and an even brighter spirit makes people happy, gets them cheering, united.
GameDay’s calendar is a head spin, even “off” season. Last summer, he had 64 events in 95 days: 32 Goats games, 15 Suns games, six NCAA lacrosse games, three Patriots training events, a USA vs. Turkey men’s soccer match, and seven private corporate events. Plus he and wife Tori have two daughters, Harper Rose and Emersyn, and a son on the way. “These days it feels like it’s always crazy,” he says.
Geary had a friend who worked in restaurants. “He’d work until one in the morning and hang with friends until three. That looked awesome.” Geary bounced around and ended up at Hartford brewery City Steam, which had a comedy club in the basement called Brew HaHa. He was the marketing director there — and the comics manager.
“We’d have three or four shows a weekend,” says Geary, “and I would introduce the shows. I’d do a few minutes of material on stage. Working the room, chatting, getting the bachelorette party settled down before the actual pros came out — Denis Leary, Joe List, Martin Montana … I’m in my 20s, living the life, and everything was great.”
Then he went to a Yard Goats game in 2016 when they played on the road, waiting for the stadium to be built, and he was hooked. “I sent a message to Tim Restall, the GM at the time [now president], and said, ‘Hey, listen, whenever you have a job that fits what I know, I would love to work for you.’ I was hired in 2017 as the director of event services. In February of 2018, the girl who had done the on-field hosting job was moving to Philly. The creative services director comes to my office and says, ‘You used to manage a comedy club — do you know any comics who might be interested?’ I said, ‘Well, none of the ones I know are looking to work in minor league baseball, but I’m interested.’
“I auditioned along with 19 other people, and they said I was the best, but were worried that doing both my job and the on-field hosting would be too much. I said, ‘If you think I’m right for the role, do not shortchange the fans. If I get burned out, I’ll tell you.’” He’s still not burned out, and the jobs keep coming in much the same way.
He was working a UConn women’s game in Hartford in 2023 when a man tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Jen Rizzotti says I’m not allowed to leave this building until I get your phone number.” Rizzotti ’96 (CLAS), starting point guard for UConn’s first national championship team and Connecticut Sun president, hired him. While hosting the NCAA lacrosse championships at Gillette Stadium last year, he drew the attention of the New England Patriots, who asked him to host their home games, which he now does. He’s worked the FCS college football championships, the men’s regional NCAA basketball tournament semifinals and finals, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame showcases, Hartford Marathon races, golf tourneys, weddings, auctions, galas, and so on. No matter the place or team, this big-bearded bear of a man with a bright smile and an even brighter spirit makes people happy, gets them cheering, united.
“I have to have a high degree of confidence that no matter what happens, it’s gonna be a good show. It doesn’t matter what room I’m in, what venue I’m in, what audience I have, what game it is. I have to believe to my core that I’m going to ensure that the production is good. I think I’ve only screwed up twice. Once I referred to the Minnesota Lynx, a WNBA team, as the Minnesota Wild, an NHL team, and another time, I just froze introducing a Sun game.”
Tonight, it turns out, is not the Yard Goats’ night. They take a two-run lead after eight but give up four runs in the top of the ninth and lose the game, 13–11. “Oh well,” he says. “Lotta hits, man. Lotta runs. Good game.”
Geary makes his way slowly down the concourse toward the showers, past the pretzel vendor and the hot dog stand, one more in the books. He’s done his job, and everyone had fun. Little kids recognize him and point. Fans fist-bump him and ask for autographs. He can’t linger too long. He has to get ready for tomorrow, because tomorrow is ...
Game day.
Having any person, needing to get the crowd excited, especially for a men's or women's basketball game is a waste or money. Let the other lesser teams hire him, UConn is fine without him.
Brian Danko
Southington, Connecticut
Game Day Conor (Conor Geary) is a treasure who lights up and makes every venue he’s a part of special and so very much more enjoyable! It’s easy to see why he’s so successful and in demand!!
Tony Retartha '63
Avon, Connecticut