Bob Huggins quit as the men’s basketball coach at West Virginia University and said he was retiring on Saturday. This came after he was caught and charged with DUI in Pittsburgh.
“The things I’ve done lately don’t reflect the ideals of University or the kind-of-leadership that’s expected of me in this position. “Even though I’ve always tried to be a good representative of our University, I’ve let everyone down, including myself,” Huggins said in a statement on Saturday.
“I am the only one to blame for what I did, and I truly apologize to everyone at the University, especially the athletes, coaches, and staff in our program. I need to do better, so I’m going to spend the next few months focusing on my health and my family so I can be the person they deserve.”
In a statement, the Pittsburgh Police Department said that just before 8:30 p.m. on Friday, police saw a black SUV with the driver’s door open blocking traffic in the middle of the road. The car had a “flat and shredded tire,” the statement said.
The police-said they told to the driver, Robert Huggins of Morgantown, West Virginia, to move the-SUV off the road, but Huggins had-trouble doing so. The police said they talked to Huggins and, because they thought he was drunk, gave him normal field sobriety tests, which he failed.
Huggins was taken into jail without any trouble and taken somewhere else for more tests.
CNN affiliate WTAE got a copy of the police record, which says that Huggins’ blood alcohol level was 0.21%, which is almost three times the legal limit of 0.08% in Pennsylvania.
The 16-year head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers was taken into arrest but later let go. He will have a preliminary-hearing at a later date.
“Coach Huggins told us he wanted to quit and gave us a letter of resignation, which we accepted because of what’s been going on. In a statement, university president E. Gordon Gee and vice president/director of athletics Wren Baker said, “We support his decision so that he can focus on his health and family.”
West Virginia hasn’t named a candidate yet, but the school says it will focus on helping the student-athletes in the men’s program and making sure the program’s leadership is strong.
Huggins’ pay was cut by $1 million per year and he was suspended for three games last month because he used a homophobic slur on a Cincinnati radio show. Huggins was also told to take sensitivity training, and his contract was changed from a multi-year deal to a one-year deal.
Huggins said he was sorry for his harsh words and said there was no reason for them.
Huggins said, “I deeply regret what I did.” “I also feel bad that it has embarrassed and upset our Athletics family, people on our campus, and the whole state of the West Virginia.”
At the time, Gee-said that the longtime-Mountaineers-coach’s behavior was “inexcusable” & “offensive.”
Huggins was arrested for DUI in the year of 2004 when he was the head coach for the men’s team at the University of Cincinnati. CNN station WLWT says that Huggins pleaded not guilty to these charges. Because of what happened, he was kicked out of school for more than two months.
Huggins won 935 games as head coach over the course of 41 seasons. This is the third-most wins by a Division I head coach in the history of college basketball.
During his time as head coach at West Virginia, he led the men’s team to 345 wins and 11 trips to the NCAA Tournament, including five trips to the NCAA Sweet 16 and the year of 2010 NCAA Final Four.
Huggins was the head coach at the University of Akron from 1984 to 1989, at the University of Cincinnati from 1989 to 2005, and at Kansas State University from 2006 to 2007.
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame chose Huggins in 2022.
- Mohamed Salah calms down Liverpool’s nerves as they beat Bologna in the Champions League.
- Tennis star who received death threats after losing the US Open is retiring
- Rory McIlroy: Emotional following a crucial Ryder Cup singles victory
- How to get a license to teach Zumba in 2024
- The referee says he is rooting for Argentina in the Copa America to get Lionel Messi’s jersey