36 Facts About Bob Huggins

Robert Edward Huggins was born on September 21,1953 and is an American college basketball coach.

Bob Huggins previously held the head coaching positions at Walsh College, the University of Akron, the University of Cincinnati and Kansas State University.

Bob Huggins was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022.

Bob Huggins is currently the winningest active head coach in NCAA D-I basketball.

Bob Huggins has been to 24 total NCAA tournaments, including 23 in the last 26 seasons.

Bob Huggins has led his teams to nine Sweet Sixteen appearances, four Elite Eight appearances, and two Final Four appearances.

Bob Huggins has lost in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament a total of 16 times.

Bob Huggins is the second coach to win 300 games at two schools.

Bob Huggins, who had moved from Morgantown, West Virginia to Port Washington, Ohio, with his family, played basketball for his father, Charles, at Indian Valley South High School.

Bob Huggins played point guard for the Mountaineers from 1975 until 1977 under head coach Joedy Gardner.

Bob Huggins averaged 13.2 points as a senior and totaled 800 career points in his three collegiate seasons.

Bob Huggins began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at West Virginia under Gardner in 1977.

Bob Huggins then spent two years as an assistant to Eldon Miller at Ohio State University.

Bob Huggins was only 27 when he became a collegiate head coach at Walsh University in 1980.

Bob Huggins directed Cincinnati to ten conference regular-season titles and eight league tournament titles.

Bob Huggins earned the Ray Meyer Award as the Conference USA Coach of the Year a record three times, and was a unanimous choice for C-USA Coach of the Decade.

Bob Huggins was selected national coach of the year by ESPN.

Bob Huggins had untruthfully told the press he didn't know about the ultimatum until numerous reporters called him in Las Vegas.

However, multiple letters between UC and Bob Huggins' attorney showed that Bob Huggins knew he would not be returning for a 17th season, and that both parties been negotiating the terms of his departure.

The correspondence showed that Bob Huggins had known weeks in advance that his ouster was imminent.

Bob Huggins ultimately agreed to accept the $3 million buyout.

Bob Huggins didn't help his image with Zimpher when an assistant coach, two players and a recruit were arrested in the spring of 2005.

At the time, Bob Huggins' contract had a rollover clause which added a year every summer.

Bob Huggins succeeded John Beilein who left to fill the same position with the Michigan Wolverines.

On December 22,2007, Bob Huggins achieved his 600th victory as a head coach in a road game at Canisius.

On May 18,2008, Bob Huggins completed his recruiting class with the signing of small forward, Devin Ebanks.

Bob Huggins later disputed the characterization of the matchup as a "rivalry" and mocked the notion that he was afraid of playing Marshall in subsequent years.

On December 22,2011, Bob Huggins reached his 700th career victory by defeating Missouri State, making him one of 4 active coaches in Division I college basketball to have earned more than 700 wins.

Bob Huggins was given two technical fouls and ejected from the game with 9:59 in the first half after fiercely disputing a technical foul called on Taz Sherman.

Bob Huggins is the second-winningest coach in WVU history, behind only fellow Hall of Famer Gale Catlett.

On May 8,2023, Bob Huggins was cited by journalists for using a homophobic slur and expressing anti-Catholic sentiment on the The Bill Cunningham Show, a radio show airing on Cincinnati 700 WLW.

Bob Huggins subsequently issued an apology for the statement, calling it "completely insensitive and abhorrent" and promising to fully accept any consequences.

Bill Cunningham, on whose show Bob Huggins made the comments, has been described as a purveyor of "hate speech" by Media Matters for America, and has been cited as having a history of making controversial remarks regarding class and race.

In November of 2020, Bob Huggins had Thom Brennaman, who was fired as an announcer for the Cincinnati Reds for using the same slur on an open microphone, speak to the WVU basketball team, prompting columnists to claim that Bob Huggins had not learned a lesson from the consequences that Brennaman himself faced.

Morgantown Pride, an LGBTQ+ support organization in Morgantown, called for WVU to terminate Bob Huggins's employment citing concern regarding cultivation of a culture in which homophobic slurs are easily used.

Several former assistant coaches and players of Bob Huggins have gone on to their own careers in coaching.