NCAA Tournament: Elder Huggins hard influence
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Charlie Huggins, father of West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, coached high school basketball in eastern Ohio for 27 years.
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NEW PHILADELPHIA, Ohio -- Bob Huggins doesn't dwell on the past.
Instead, the West Virginia coach usually spins a yarn that many who cover the team have heard what seems like a million times.
"I grew up in Midvale [Ohio], 500 people, one stop light, nine bars," he said of the town his family moved to from Morgantown, W.Va., when he was 9. "I got in a truck with this guy one time and looked and he didn't have a rear-view mirror. I said, 'You don't have a rear-view mirror.'
"He said, 'I don't back up. We're going forward, son.' And that's kind of how I've lived my life."
But it would be impossible to comprehend all that makes Huggins successful without looking into one person who has been there through his entire past -- his father, Charlie Huggins.
What did the younger Huggins, the oldest of seven children, learn from his father? "Virtually everything."
And that goes for the lessons in basketball, too.
See, Charlie Huggins, who proudly exclaimed that he is "76-and-three-quarter-years-old" as he sat on the couch of his New Philadelphia, Ohio, home Wednesday, might just have been a better basketball coach than his son, who has guided West Virginia into college basketball's Final Four.
Charlie Huggins coached high school ball for 27 years in eastern Ohio before retiring in 1983. He won two state titles -- one with son Bob leading the way in 1972, when their Indian Valley South squad won every game by at least 15 points.
Charlie Huggins' defense-minded teams ripped through a 51-game winning streak at one point, playing a strangulating trap and a mix of man-to-man and zone.
"There are a lot of similarities with our coaching styles," the elder Huggins said, pausing to think for a moment before continuing. "Except I never cussed. I don't believe in that."
While Charlie Huggins is a deeply religious man who never believed in ripping into a player or official with a foul mouth, he steadfastly demanded hard work.
Van Henry, who was a teammate of Bob Huggins' on that '72 squad, remembers the three-hour practices.
He remembers the yelling.
He remembers the earsplitting commands.
He remembers how Charlie Huggins had total control -- and no one dared challenge it.
"His intensity and not accepting anything less than full effort is what I remember most, and also how hard he was on Bobby," Henry, a retired schoolteacher, said of Charlie Huggins. "I don't want to exaggerate, but there wasn't a week that went by where someone wasn't ready to quit. When it was your turn for him to get after you, he got after you, and it wasn't easy, but it made you better."
First Published April 3, 2010 12:00 am
