Former Cincinnati Bearcats coach Bob Huggins demands reinstatement at West Virginia
There's a new chapter in the saga of former University of Cincinnati men's basketball coach Bob Huggins' tenure ending at West Virginia University, according to reports.
Huggins' attorney on Friday sent a letter to West Virginia University, according to Metro News in Charleston, West Virginia, demanding the coach's reinstatement. The university responded with its own letter, saying Huggins resigned via a June 17 letter to the university following a June 16 DUI arrest in Pittsburgh. The resignation/retirement was also posted on social media and has since been deleted.
This is the statement that Bob Huggins released on June 17th --- 22 days ago.
Now he's saying that he never resigned from West Virginia.
There's only one way to summarize this situation: A very sad ending to a Hall-of-Fame career. pic.twitter.com/FUuXIT7v8n— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) July 9, 2023
The resignation letter the university cites was sent from Huggins' wife June's email address.
David A. Campbell, an attorney for Cleveland law firm of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, wrote the letter to West Virginia Friday stating Huggins never wrote a resignation letter to the school and was pressured to leave after the DUI incident in Pittsburgh. The letter says Huggins isn't looking to sue but is looking to correct a breach of his employment agreement.
West Virginia counsel Stephanie Taylor has called the communication "factually inaccurate".
Gold and Blue Nation has the correspondence from the attornies as well as the resignation letter which does come from the email of June Huggins, Bob's wife.
West Virginia has responded inquiring which attorney is representing Huggins. Bob Fitzsimmons recently inquired about deferred compensation Huggins would receive and James "Rocky" Gianola has historically been Huggins' representation with West Virginia including the recent incident involving the resignation/retirement.
The Huggins resignation was accepted via email by West Virginia athletic director Wren Baker at 9:42 p.m. June 17, 2023 after the coach had met with his players as reported by BlueGoldNews.com.
Read the relevant letters/documents in Huggins' new contention that he never resigned. WVU counters that he surely did. https://t.co/n1tkudZoFE
— Hoppy Kercheval (@HoppyKercheval) July 9, 2023
Huggins used a homophobic slur to describe Xavier University fans on May 8 during an interview with 700 WLW host Bill Cunningham. West Virginia responded by announcing a suspension and salary reduction for the upcoming basketball season.
Bob Huggins coached at West Virginia for the past 16 seasons. He coached the University of Cincinnati Bearcats for 16 seasons and a 398-128 record, which included a Final Four appearance in 1992. Huggins resigned from UC in 2005, a year after a DUI arrest, which led to him taking a year off before coaching the Kansas State Wildcats for a season.
Huggins, a College Basketball Hall of Famer is 69 years old and was under contract with West Virginia through April of 2024. Josh Eilert was recently named West Virginia's interim coach and his staff includes former Huggins UC player DerMarr Johnson who left Wes Miller's staff as a grad assistant to join Huggins. The Mountaineers appeared to be a contender by way of transfer portal additions but six players have entered the portal since the departure of Huggins.
The Enquirer will update this story if more information becomes available.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Bob Huggins demands reinstatement by West Virginia
