Already in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, former Cincinnati Bearcats basketball coach Bob Huggins added UC’s James P. Kelly Athletic Hall of Fame to his list of honors June 10.
Huggins was informed by two of his 1992 UC Final Four players, Terry Nelson and Corie Blount, who made the trip to Morgantown, West Virginia, to read UC athletic director John Cunningham’s proclamation.
The veteran coach was in Cincinnati on March 25 for the introduction of new Bearcats coach Jerrod Calhoun, a former Huggins assistant at UC and West Virginia before forging his own path.
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“A great quote from Bob Huggins was, ‘You’ve got to be an everyday guy,’ ” Calhoun said.
Fans cheer former Cincinnati head coach Bob Huggins during a press conference announcing Jerrod Calhoun as the head men’s basketball coach at Fifth Third Arena March 25.
In April, Huggins came to Memorial Hall for a screening of a documentary about his career that drew a large audience. Another such appearance comes in Morgantown on June 20.
“It makes you feel good that people care about you,” Huggins said of the “Beyond the Bench” film.
Huggins was inducted in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the Naismith Class of 2022 and enshrined in the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.
Bob Huggins road to Cincinnati, beyond
After playing at Ohio University and West Virginia, his coaching career began as a grad assistant at WVU, before becoming an assistant at Ohio State. From 1980 to 1983, he was the head coach at Walsh before taking 1983-84 to coach under his good friend Chuck Machock at UCF.
Bob Huggins is on the prowl in the 1996 UC vs. Xavier Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout.
He returned to be the head coach at Akron from 1984 to 1989, before many glory years with the UC Bearcats. After one season at Kansas State, he moved to his alma mater, West Virginia, from 2008 to 2023.
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“What he’s done as a coach has been kind of remarkable,” former UC guard and NBA player Nick Van Exel said in April. “A guy that came from way at the bottom to make several Final Fours and took programs that were not elite and made them elite, it says a lot about himself and his coaching.”
Huggins will be 73 when inducted Oct. 23 at Fifth Third Arena, the night before the 100th Homecoming at Nippert Stadium featuring the Cincinnati Bearcats football team against Big 12 rival Texas Tech.
Bob Huggins won 399 games with Cincinnati Bearcats from 1989-2005
When Huggins was hired from the Akron Zips to coach the Cincinnati Bearcats, UC had not been to the NCAA Tournament since March 1977 under Gale Catlett. Huggins vowed to compete for a national championship, drawing laughter and skepticism. In his first two seasons, the Bearcats made the NIT, then bolstered by what may be their best recruiting class ever, UC not only made its first NCAA Tournament in 15 years in 1992, but it made it to its first Final Four since 1963.
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It would be the first of 14 straight appearances at UC.
Huggins was Conference USA Coach of the Year three times. ESPN named him Coach of the Year in 2001-02, and Sporting News and Basketball Times named him Coach of the Year in 1997-98. Between the Great Midwest Conference and Conference USA, Huggins won 10 regular-season titles and eight conference tournaments.
Bob Huggins won over 75% of his UC Bearcats games
His winning percentage at UC was .759, only eclipsed by the five-year run Ed Jucker had that included two NCAA titles and a national runner-up. Jucker’s winning percentage was .801. From the 1970s, Catlett was at .741, followed by George Smith, Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson’s coach, at .733 with two Final Fours.
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The closest to Huggins in UC wins is Mick Cronin with 296.
1992 UC Bearcats have had previous honors
The ’92 Final Four team was inducted into the Greater Cincinnati Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017. The following year, Nick Van Exel was part of the 2018 class. And, Bob Huggins attended the 2023 induction of Corie Blount.
Eric Hicks, Corie Blount, Bob Huggins and Andy Kennedy share a laugh as they talk about the University of Cincinnati basketball program on the Andy Kennedy show at Rick’s Tavern and Grill in Fairfield March 29, 2006.
Bob Huggins wins continued in Big 12, Big East
Post UC, Huggins spent a year at Kansas State, then joined his alma mater, West Virginia. With the Mountaineers, he made another Final Four in 2010 and won 345 more games. He has 934 overall wins.
As a player, he was All-State three times at Indian Valley South and was the Ohio Player of the Year in 1972. He scored 2,438 high school points. In one season at Ohio University and two at WVU, he scored 800 collegiate points and averaged 13.2 points per game as a senior.
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The remainder of the 2026 University of Cincinnati Athletics Hall of Fame class will be announced later this summer.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Naismith Hall of Famer Bob Huggins now in UC’s Athletic Hall of Fame
