Bob Huggins desires to return West Virginia. The sensation shouldn’t be mutual. (Picture by Dylan Buell/Getty Photos)
Bob Huggins’ state of affairs at West Virginia in some way acquired even messier.
Three weeks after West Virginia launched an announcement attributed to Huggins asserting his resignation and retirement following a DUI arrest, an legal professional representing the longtime Mountaineers males’s basketball head coach despatched a letter to the varsity claiming he, in reality, didn’t resign and demanding reinstatement.
Within the letter, obtained by West Virginia Metro Information, legal professional David A. Campbell claims Huggins by no means signed a proper resignation letter or formally communicated his resignation to any particular person at West Virginia. He claimed that West Virginia responded to the DUI arrest by demanding Huggins’ resignation the subsequent day, relatively than examine the matter, which got here a month after Huggins got here beneath hearth for utilizing an anti-gay slur on a radio present.
Crucially, he claimed the one communication of resignation the college obtained was a textual content message from Huggins’ spouse.
Huggins reportedly entered a rehab program following the arrest and is now seeking to return to the Mountaineers as he nears its completion:
Coach Huggins was concerned in an incident in Pittsburgh that’s now near being absolutely resolved with out expenses. Furthermore, Coach Huggins has voluntarily sought rehabilitation following the incident with the intention to go away little doubt that he’s absolutely able to returning to his duties as WVU Head Basketball Coach. This rehabilitation was not ordered by the Court docket or every other entity. Reasonably, to show his dedication to the WVU basketball program, he took the step of getting into this system on a voluntary nature. Coach Huggins might be launched from this system quickly and we are going to give you a full launch for Coach Huggins to return to his lively duties as Head Basketball Coach at WVU.
West Virginia responds to Bob Huggins’ demand for reinstatement
West Virginia responded with a complete denial of Huggins’ claims in a response letter, calling the assertion “fully factually inaccurate.”
Normal counsel Stephanie Taylor wrote that the letter clashed with what she heard Friday from Bob Fitzsimmons, a lawyer who has represented Huggins on different issues. She requested a clarification on who’s representing Huggins and steered Campbell hadn’t carried out due diligence on the case.
She additionally famous Huggins himself instructed the WVU gamers he was resigning and claimed what Campbell referred to as a textual content message was in reality an e mail from Huggins’ spouse, studying “Please settle for this correspondence as my formal discover of resignation as WVU Head Basketball Coach and as discover of my retirement from West Virginia College, efficient instantly.”
Metro Information additionally revealed the e-mail.
Taylor’s account of how the night went down:
What is evident, nonetheless, is that on the night of June 17, 2023, Mr. Huggins met with members of the lads’s basketball employees and student-athletes to announce that he would not be teaching the crew. The identical night at 9:38 p.m., following a collection of written and verbal communications with Mr. Gianola, who was appearing as his counsel, Mr. Huggins clearly communicated his resignation and retirement to the College in writing through e mail (not textual content message as asserted in your letter). Later that very same night time at 9:42 p.m., Wren Baker, the College’s Athletics Director, with a cc to me as Normal Counsel, wrote again through e mail, accepting Mr. Huggins’ resignation and retirement. Each events have moderately relied on that resignation and retirement notification in a lot of methods since then. Furthermore, till Mr. Campbell’s letter of yesterday, 20 days have handed since Mr. Huggins’ resignation and retirement submission with no declare by Mr. Huggins, or his different two legal professionals, that he didn’t in reality resign and retire.
There’s clearly so much to untangle right here, with a possible lawsuit coming from the person who was one among West Virginia’s most recognizable faces for 16 years.
West Virginia was already attempting to maneuver on from Huggins, who exited this system in shame following the slur scandal and the DUI arrest, which was his second after a earlier one in 2004 whereas he was with Cincinnati. The college responded to the slur by suspending Huggins three video games and lowering his wage by $1 million.
Legally acknowledged or not, Huggins’ departure led to a number of transfers out of West Virginia and an aborted seek for his alternative. As a substitute, the varsity promoted assistant Josh Eilert to interim head coach and introduced it will pursue a real successor after the 2023-24 season.