UConn superfan ‘Little Red' walks 62 miles to exhibition, topping last year's 44-mile trek

For Huskies superfan Henry Blethen, better known as “Little Red,” the trek to Tuesday’s first exhibition of the 2026-27 UConn men’s basketball season began at 4 a.m. Monday with a dark walk through Marlborough.

Blethen captured national media attention last season with an impromptu 44-mile walk to UConn’s matchup against Creighton at Gampel Pavilion, hoping to galvanize the Huskies fan base that had been criticized by coach Dan Hurley. Looking to replicate his January effort this season, Blethen was already in for a longer walk after moving from Bloomfield to Granby during the offseason, but the 36-year-old still felt the call to go “above and beyond” with this latest trek.

This time, Blethen began a grueling 62-mile walk from near the Massachusetts border Monday morning, stopping overnight in Hurley’s hometown of Glastonbury before continuing across much of Connecticut’s rural eastern half to reach Mohegan Sun Arena for UConn’s first preseason exhibition against Syracuse on Tuesday evening.

“I don’t even know if I really want to do this again next year,” Blethen told CTInsider Tuesday. “It’s really painful.”

Blethen reached his friend’s hotel room at Mohegan Sun with a few hours to spare before tip-off along the Thames River, enjoying a much-needed soak in the hot tub and a rewarding scroll through social media. Partnering with the Husky Ticket Project, which seeks to provide UConn athletics experiences to children across Connecticut, Blethen’s GiveSendGo campaign had raised more than $12,000 before Tuesday’s game, including support from many notable figures in UConn basketball.

“The fans really rally behind it, so that’s really important from a donation standpoint,” Blethen said. “Our fans aren’t shy to donate; they just want the cause to be energetic and have something behind it, like the hot sauce challenge. There just needs to be some sort of energy and reason behind it.”

For Blethen, that reason is giving kids a chance to attend a UConn game.

“It’s just an emotional thing, the completion of it,” Blethen said. “Putting kids into positions where they can forget about their week a little bit, go see a UConn game, win or lose. That’s the focus. That’s what gets me through the painful miles.”

Luke Murray, who left UConn for Boston College after five seasons as an assistant, showed his continued support for the Huskies community with a $500 donation to Blethen’s GiveSendGo. Blethen also said that Murray offered him a chance to check out Eagles practice ahead of the coach’s inaugural season in Chestnut Hill – “I never got invited to a UConn practice, you can quote me on that,” Blethen joked.

Meanwhile, former Huskies center and current Portland Trail Blazers star Donovan Clingan matched the drive’s largest donation at $1,000. Clingan, a Bristol native, spent two seasons with the Huskies and was a major contributor to Blethen’s efforts last year.

“My relationship with Clingan is really cool,” Blethen said. “Every time I see him, we have really great conversations. Just a really stand-up guy, never forgets where he’s come from. [With] how much he’s grown, and how successful he’s in the NBA, it’s great to watch. When I saw that $1,000 kind of pop up, that was a real boost for me.”

Tuesday’s game marks the long-awaited, unofficial start of UConn’s 2026-27 campaign, as the Huskies will play two more exhibitions against Michigan State and Purdue before the regular season begins Nov. 2 versus Gardner-Webb. It also renews an old-school Big East rivalry between the Huskies and Orange – the two legacy Northeast programs haven’t faced off since UConn scored an upset victory at Madison Square Garden in Hurley’s debut season eight years ago.

Blethen says it’s “great” to see Gerry McNamara return to Syracuse as the new Orange head coach and to watch Kiyan Anthony star at his father’s alma mater, admitting his hatred for Syracuse has subsided in recent years because of the program’s “irrelevance.” Despite these nostalgic underpinnings, Blethen isn’t too concerned with the result of Tuesday’s exhibition.

“I don’t give a s— about these games,” Blethen said. “People are going to overreact or underreact to these games. Nobody’s ever truly happy, so you just go there to watch the team. I treat it like a practice, really.”

Otherwise, the famously jet-setting Blethen hasn’t made any travel plans for UConn’s expansive nonconference slate, preferring impromptu accommodations for possible road trips to Arizona, Las Vegas and Chicago. He’s looking forward to a second-year jump from Silas Demary Jr. within Hurley’s program and is excited to watch the full-framed Najai Hines add new brawn to the UConn interior, believing the Huskies have the talent to make another run to the national title game.

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This article originally published at UConn superfan ‘Little Red’ walks 62 miles to exhibition, topping last year’s 44-mile trek.