Bob Huggins Return to WVU Exemplifies the Mountaineer Spirit

As the shirt says, “This is Huggstown Now,” and truly, media read on the front of the shirt is correct, because the moment Mountaineer basketball coach Bob Huggins accepted the job at WVU, Morgantown became Huggstown. Bob Huggins decided to return to a city that absolutely adores him after a long time away building his illustrious resume at the University of Cincinnati and (briefly) Kansas State University, and the second he got off the plane he was a hero. Never mind that he made a name for himself at one of WVU’s conference rivals; never mind that he left Kansas State in a state of turmoil after staying only one year—as far as everyone in Morgantown was concerned, he was always a Mountaineer.
While Bob Huggins may have ended up back where he belongs, he certainly traveled a tenuous path, and perhaps in that is the reason his story is so interesting. After an incredible career at Cincinnati came to an end with a DUI conviction and alleged prescription drug abuse problems, he was out of work for about a year before he landed obscurely in Manhattan, Kansas as the Kansas State basketball coach. Immediately turning the program from a doormat in the Big XII Conference to a national competitor in one year he earned the respect and admiration of a whole community of fans. Needless to say, they were unhappy to see him leave after only one year to return to his alma mater, WVU.
Bob Huggins is what every mountaineer should aspire to be; spirited. The fact that he is a native West Virginia is not what is important in this story although it is the point that most of the media focused on; what makes Bob Huggins a Mountaineer is his unquenchable spirit. When he was down on his luck and it seemed as if there was no escape, he kept fighting, earning a job at a small basketball school and working his way back home to where he could be surrounded by the family and friends that have stood by him his entire life. “There were some hard times; I’m not going to lie,” says the coach, “but I just knew that I couldn’t give up, no matter how bad things got.”
This story should inspire Mountaineers out there who are thinking about quitting, about giving up; they should gain resolution in the fact that others have struggled mightily before, and others have succeeded. This defines what a Mountaineer should be; he should be someone who can fall as low as it is possible to go, and then fight his way out of it, work his way back to the top. A Mountaineer is not someone who merely attends WVU; plenty of people go to school here without achieving that title. A true Mountaineer is defined by the amount of will and fight in his heart, not by the place of his birth. Bob Huggins is the perfect example of what we all as Mountaineers should aspire to be: Welcome home Bob!