Bob Huggins Will Not Make Scheduled WVU Coaches Caravan Appearance

In the wake of West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins making anti-gay remarks on a radio show with 700 WLW’s Bill Cunningham Monday afternoon, he will not make a previously scheduled Mountaineer Athletics Club appearance.

Huggins had been scheduled to participate in the WVU Coaching Caravan tonight at Oglebay Resort in Wheeling, West Virginia, but WTOV 9’s Jack Hillgrove reported that Huggins will no longer be in attendance. This was then confirmed by WVU director of athletics Wren Baker when he briefly spoke with the media as he arrived at the event.

WVU athletic director Wren Baker met with us briefly as he arrived in Wheeling for the coaches caravan. @WTOV9 pic.twitter.com/HTKHmY74u9

— Jack Hillgrove (@JackWTOV9) May 8, 2023

Tonight’s WVU Coaches Caravan, which was scheduled to feature Huggins, Neal Brown and other coaches and administrators, is the first of four stops across the state — including Wheeling, Glade Springs, Parkersburg and Martinsburg.

Huggins issued an apology earlier this afternoon, apologizing for a “completely insensitive and abhorrent phrase that there is simply no excuse for,” and expressing that he will accept any punishment that comes his way.

West Virginia Athletics issued a statement of its own:

“Coach Huggins’ remarks today on a Cincinnati radio show were insensitive, offensive and do not represent our University values. Coach Huggins has since apologized. West Virginia University does not condone the use of such language and takes such actions very seriously. The situation is under review and will be addressed by the University and its athletics department.”

Huggins has won 934 career games spanning five coaching tenures at Walsh College, Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State, and West Virginia. Huggins, who coached the Bearcats from 1989-2005, left Cincinnati in 2005 after he was told to resign or be fired after a DUI arrest and several high-profile player infractions.

The Morgantown native returned to his alma mater West Virginia in 2007, taking the Mountaineers to their second Final Four in school history in 2010. Huggins is the second in all-time coaching wins at WVU, with 345 wins.