Hertzel: Huggins’ tangled web weaves as he seeks reinstatement as head coach
MORGANTOWN -- On the day the spit hit the fan, I opted to write that the end to Bob Huggins’ coaching career had reached a conclusion as if it were a Shakespearean tragedy.
Alas, as we all arose on Sunday morning to learn that Huggins was denying he ever resigned as WVU basketball coach and threatened to sue to get his job back, a very Shakespearean-sounding couplet quickly came to mind:
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave/when first we practice to deceive”
While that line sounds Shakespearean, it is instead from Sir Walter Scott’s play “Marmion”. Not that it matters at all, for there obviously is one other line that may fit the stunning events of the last 24 hours even more precisely and it comes from someone far more quotable than Shakespeare or Sir. Walter Scott.
It was Yogi Berra who once observed that “It ain’t over til it’s over.” This one apparently is a long way from over.
Huggins, you see, seems to have decided to put a full court press on E. Gorden Gee, the school president; on athletic director Wren Baker, who by now realizes he got far more than he bargained for when he left the comfort of a similar job at North Texas for the bright lights of Morgantown.
Fittingly, this well may be decided in “court”, although not the basketball court where Huggins feels most at home, but in a court of law, where Huggins will almost certainly appear in a suit of clothes rather than in a pullover.
If it does go to court, Huggins may well decide to testify. Whether it will be from the witness chair or the witness stool will probably have to be worked out during pretrial discussions.
The entanglements of the web WVU and Huggins have spun out of the Mountaineers’ legal team’s rush to get matters settled quickly after Huggins was found drunk and disoriented (but not disorderly) on a Pittsburgh street, failed a DUI test and was arrested in mid-June.
Coming less than two months after putting forth homophobic and hurtful slurs at Catholics while appearing on a Cincinnati radio show, that lead to him being suspended for three games, his contract was altered to a year-by-year agreement. $1 million was deducted from this year’s pay to be given to support the school’s LGBTQ center, its mental health counseling center and other organizations, and it seemed clear that Huggins could no longer coach at WVU.
The school eagerly accepted his “resignation”, but, apparently, resignations aren’t quite what they used to be. Huggins now says he never resigned, and he may have a valid point because the school was willing to accept the resignation even though it did not seem to meet the legal standards put forth in his contract.
Of course, as things go in our legal system, it wasn’t quite as cut and dry as the basketball rulebook definition of a 3-point shot; it’s more like the charge/block rule.
Huggins’ employment agreement states that his resignation must be in writing via registered or certified mail to the Director of Athletics and WVU’s general counsel.
Now this will be difficult to believe, but it got by the attorneys that the resignation came not in the form of a certified or registered letter with Huggins’ signature on it, but instead via email, and not directed to the AD or general counsel, but instead to Steve Ursasz, the school’s deputy athletic director.
It read:
Subject: Resignation
Please accept this correspondence as my formal notice of resignation as WVU Head Basketball Coach and as notice of my retirement from West Virginia University, effective immediately.
The email in no place carried Huggins name and, in fact, came from an email account in the name of June Huggins, the coach’s wife.
The school’s acceptance of the resignation was no less sloppy, coming from Baker and reading:
“Coach,
“We accept your resignation and wish you the best in retirement. We appreciate your many years of dedication to WVU and wish you the best in retirement.”
That is somewhat informal for such an important correspondence. Nowhere does it mention Huggins by name and it was sent to the account it came from, the one under the name of June Huggins.
A tangled web, indeed, on both sides.
Had Bob Huggins resigned … or June Huggins?
Shortly after this the WVU Athletic website announced the resignation with this statement:
Mountaineer Nation:
Today, I have submitted a letter to President Gordon Gee and Vice President and Director of Athletics Wren Baker informing them of my resignation and intention to retire as head men's basketball coach at West Virginia University effective immediately.
My recent actions do not represent the values of the University or the leadership expected in this role. While I have always tried to represent our University with honor, I have let all of you - and myself - down. I am solely responsible for my conduct and sincerely apologize to the University community - particularly to the student-athletes, coaches and staff in our program. I must do better, and I plan to spend the next few months focused on my health and my family so that I can be the person they deserve.
It has been the honor of my professional career to lead the men's basketball program at my alma mater and I take great pride in our accomplishments. But I am most proud of the tremendous young men who chose to spend their formative years with us, and who have gone on to do great things with their lives.
I was born in Morgantown, graduated from West Virginia University and had the pleasure of coaching here for seventeen seasons as an assistant or head coach. It will always be my home, and I will always be a Mountaineer.
Thank you to everyone who has supported our program over the years. It has meant more to me and my family than you could ever know.
It is unsigned. The name Bob Huggins does not appear. Did he really write this?
Huggins’ legal representative David Campbell of the law firm of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP of Cleveland claims Huggins never resigned. In a letter dated July 7 the firm claims Huggins wants his job back, saying:
“Based on press statements, it appears that WVU is taking the position that Coach Huggins voluntarily resigned and terminated the Employment agreement in advance of April 30, 2024. However, although the press statements purport to have resignation communications directly from Coach Huggins to you and/or the Athletic Director, Coach Huggins has never communicated his resignation to you, the Athletic Director or anyone at WVU. To the contrary, we understand the purported “resignation” is incredibly based on a text message from Coach Huggins’ wife.”
The university’s response from the school’s Vice President and General Counsel Stephanie D. Taylor does seem to leave crack in the door for negotiations over potential compensation for Huggins, saying the University is “unclear as to its next steps: continue working collaboratively with Mr. Fitzsimmons on common resignation/retirement benefits for a former employee as outlined in Mr. Huggins’ contract or respond to meritless demand letters and possible frivolous litigation brought forth from you.”
It, however, holds steadfastly to its belief that Huggins resigned/retired.
“What is clear, however, is that on the evening of June 17, 2023, Mr. Huggins met with members of the men's basketball staff and student-athletes to announce that he would no longer be coaching the team. The same evening at 9:38 p.m., following a series of written and verbal communications with Mr. Gianola, who was acting as his counsel, Mr. Huggins clearly communicated his resignation and retirement to the University in writing via email (not text message as asserted in your letter). Later that same night at 9:42 p.m., Wren Baker, the University's Athletics Director, with a cc to me as General Counsel, wrote back via email, accepting Mr. Huggins' resignation and retirement.”
What we have here, with all due apologies to Cool Hand Luke, is a failure to communicate, despite endless communications.
Both sides moved swiftly. Huggins into a rehabilitation program, Baker and WVU into naming Josh Eilert interim coach, while those players Huggins met with took him serious enough to transfer from the program - the likes of Tre Mitchell, James Okonkwo, Mo Wague and Joe Toussaint.
Obviously, it is a tangled web that cannot easily be untangled. While so many who have responded to this say it is about money, that is a point that I would argue.
It plays a role, yes, a big role. It does in everything we do these days, but this is more about Huggins having his identity tied up in being a basketball coach, about his love for the state and the university that educated him.
It is a man begging more than demanding a final chance to leave with his legacy as a basketball coach — a Hall of Fame coach, at that — intact.
Even though so many West Virginians have lined up behind Huggins, have screamed out for him to be rehired because of all he has done for his state, his school, for cancer research, this has gone too far in the other direction to patch up.
Fiscally, hammer out a fair settlement, write a check and move on.
Just make out the check to Bob Huggins, not June Huggins.