UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma was in the midst of his postgame news conference after his team's major-college record 89th victory in a row when a PR flack interrupted to hand him a cell phone.
Who could possibly be important enough to keep a roomful of reporters waiting? None other than President Obama himself.
"No, you're not interrupting anything," Auriemma said, chuckling. "If I was calling you and you had all those reporters in front of you, you'd be dying to take my phone call, right?"
Most congratulatory phone calls between a president and the coach of a championship team occur out of the public eye, so it was fascinating to see Auriemma so calm with one of the most powerful men on the planet on the other end of the line.
Auriemma, who has met Obama during White House visits each of the past two years, graciously accepted congratulations on defeating Florida State to eclipse the 88-game winning streak set by John Wooden's legendary UCLA men's teams from 1971 to 1974. He also noted that the Huskies haven't lost since Obama became president, joking "How about we keep that streak going for a couple more years, huh?" Maybe the highlight of the video, however, is the zinger Auriemma unleashed to reporters as soon as he got off the phone with Obama. "That was the new president of the University of Connecticut," Auriemma deadpanned. "We just wanted to get off on the right start."
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