Bob Huggins’ daughter went on a passionate defense of her father after the Basketball Hall of Famer resigned from his position as West Virginia men’s basketball coach on Saturday.
Huggins was arrested on a DUI charge Friday around 8:30 p.m. ET after his SUVI stopped in the middle of traffic in Pittsburgh with a shredded tire and the driver’s-side door open. Authorities said responding officers asked Huggins to move to the side but observed that he had trouble doing so.
Upon further questioning, officers suspected he was intoxicated and asked him to exit the vehicle. The police report said he failed standard sobriety tests and was taken into custody without further incident and transported for further testing. According to the Herald-Dispatch, officers found a garbage bag with empty beer cans in the front of the vehicle and empty beer bottles in the trunk.
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It was later determined his blood-alcohol content was twice the legal limit.
Jacque Huggins posted a lengthy statement on Facebook targeting West Virginia University president E. Gordon Gee and the school’s board and said her father was not an alcoholic.
"To Gordon Gee & your board, be better and do better. Throwing stones at glass houses is also not how to represent such a great University. Treating someone like they don’t matter after they have given their whole heart and soul to your University? You could have helped, but chose to turn your backs. Not only on him, on the guys, the staff, the boosters. Everyone. You’re the classless ones, the cowards, the backstabbers and most of all hypocrites," her post read.
"Remember the 24 million dollar practice facility, that was not in anyway funded by the University? The 17 million into your hospitals for cancer research? I can only pray you never make another mistake like you have in the past to be crucified for. Cue Ohio State. Enrollment down 30%, mountains of debt, and too much more to list. Do your job that you were assigned to do and bring WVU back.
"Not that i need to touch anymore on what happened, but I’m going to," she added. "Because the people above don’t deserve the right to hide how it really happened and the kind of people they actually are. My dad is not an alcoholic, he drinks like 90% of us do and made a mistake that cost him his job, reputation and his livelihood. Which he didn’t deserve.
"He told Gordon and his board that he would go to rehab for a 60 day stint to be able to stay for these guys. The guys who don’t want to play for anyone else. That’s how much he cares. Refused. Not even considered. 100% no without a thought. Also given 30 MINUTES to decide if he was being fired or retiring. But they want to preach this society of understanding and compassion. I’ve not passed the bar but I’m pretty sure there are some stiff laws against this. Once a mountaineer, always a mountaineer, right?"
Jacque Huggins then addressed the notion her father had beer cans "all over the car."
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"Next the ‘beer cans all over the car’ the cans were in bags and not all beer cans, There is a small group in Morgantown who knows my dad collects cans to recycle. Always has, always will. That’s his thing. To act like he was driving around pounding beers as the media wants to portray is absolutely absurd. The society in this world we are living in doesn’t always tell the truth. Media will tell you what they want you to believe or what they want you to know. That choice is of course yours to buy into or not, but just know it’s not always factual. It’s easy to judge a person from the outside looking in."
She added that her father wanted nothing more than to win a championship at West Virginia and that he was a "once in (a) 1000 year coach."
"The lack of compassion shown in this situation absolutely disgusts me. The way it was handled disgusts me. If this is how they treat one of their own then how will they treat anyone else?"
It was Bob Huggins’ second such arrest. The other occurred in 2004 when he was at Cincinnati and was allowed to return to work.
Huggins was suspended three games to start the 2023-24 season when he used a gay slur on a radio referring to Xavier University members.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
