West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins uses homophobic slur on radio show
West Virginia University said it was reviewing and would later address the homophobic comments its men’s basketball coach, Hall of Famer Bob Huggins, made Monday during a live radio interview.
Huggins appeared on Cincinnati station 700WLW’s “Bill Cunningham Show” discussing his 16-season tenure at the University of Cincinnati and the school’s rivalry with Xavier University. Recalling a Crosstown Shootout game between the schools, he twice called Xavier fans a homophobic insult, saying they would “throw rubber penises on the floor and then say they didn’t do it”.
In a statement, West Virginia said Huggins’ comments were “insensitive, offensive” and did not represent values. The school “does not condone the use of such language and takes such actions very seriously. The situation is being reviewed and will be addressed by the university and its athletic department.”
When asked if the 69-year-old Huggins will be allowed to continue recruiting and working during the evaluation, a spokesman for the men’s basketball team referred to the university’s statement. Huggins did not respond to a text asking if he had been disciplined by the university.
The summer recruitment period peaks in July. College coaches can receive prospects for official and unofficial visits until May 18 and then again from May 27. Coaches can’t go back on the recruiting path until mid-June.
Huggins apologized before the university released her statement, saying he would “fully accept” any ramifications for his comments.
“During the conversation, I used a completely insensitive and abhorrent phrase that there’s just no excuse for — and I’m not going to try to make one here,” Huggins said in a statement. “I sincerely apologize to those individuals I have offended, as well as the Xavier University community, the University of Cincinnati, and West Virginia University.”
He did not attend a West Virginia fundraising event Monday night in Wheeling, W.Va.; his old assistant, Ron Everhart, appeared instead.
“He had a conflict and can’t be there tonight,” West Virginia athletics director Wren Baker told local reporters.
Huggins has been coaching in West Virginia since 2007. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022 and is one of only six men’s coaches to reach 900 wins in Division I. Huggins, a West Virginia alumnus, led the program to the Final Four in 2010, a feat that the team had not achieved since the 1950s.