Teaming Up
For Bob Huggins, it’s personal.
Next weekend, as friends and colleagues gather in Cincinnati to honor Bob Huggins, they’ll also be raising money for a cause close to his heart, a cancer hospital to be built on the campus of West Virginia University. In interviews with the media last week, Coach Huggins said it’s a way to honor his mother, who died of the disease.
“Losing my mother in 2003, watching the struggle she went through, it’s a terrible, terrible disease,” he said. “We’ve raised money for cancer research since 2003, but we need a hospital. So, we’re going to raise money and build a hospital that will carry my mother’s name.”
While we may be more familiar with Coach Huggins’ time in Cincinnati, it’s West Virginia that has always been home. “My mom grew up just down the bottom of the hill from campus,” he said. “I’ve got aunts and uncles and cousins here. I was born here, so this state and the people in this state are very near and dear. But I love the people in Cincinnati, the people are fantastic, so nice, so cordial every time I’ve gone back.”
Coach Huggins is still celebrating a coaching milestone that only six NCAA Division 1 men’s coaches have reached—900 career wins. But reaching that milestone last season, with quarantine interruptions and canceled games, wasn’t easy. Add the new transfer portal that allows players to change schools much easier, and he says it’s a different landscape for college basketball.
“It’s a tough time right now,” he said, “the COVID issues, portal situation, this is different than any of us have ever experienced, and I’ve been doing this for 40 years.
“You look around and (Duke head coach) Mike Krzyzewski decided to retire, it’s not going to be long before (Syracuse head coach) Coach Boeheim retires, (North Carolina head coach) Roy Williams laid it down last year, it’s really a tough time right now for basketball. Hopefully we’ll start playing again soon and move on.”
Just don’t put Coach Huggins in that retirement category quite yet. “I’ve said from the beginning, when I lose my enthusiasm for it, when I lose my energy and say, ‘God, I don’t want to do this today,’ then I’ll quit,” he said. “Because I’m not going to cheat our players. That’s something I’d never do.
“I’m around people I’ve known for such a long time, they give me energy and we’ve been blessed with terrific guys. All those people who (griped) that people didn’t graduate, they need to come over here, we’re graduating our players. But you know why? Because they care. You need support, and we have great support.”
The inaugural Huggins Homecoming will benefit the Norma Mae Huggins Cancer Endowment, a fund established by Coach Huggins in his mother’s name to provide cancer care and research. The weekend features a 5K run/walk on Sunday, June 13, and dinner on Monday, June 14. Limited tickets are available at wvucancer.org/hugginshomecoming.