This is not Bob Huggins’ first brush with trouble in the workplace. The current West Virginia men’s basketball coach has walked the line of university policy for decades. In his previous head coaching job at Cincinnati, Huggins was eventually forced to resign from the culmination of rules violations, player arrests, and a fairly public DUI. Which is how the famously testy coach ended up at Kansas State for a year, then to Morgantown, West Virginia, where he’s been since 2007. In that time, he’s led the Mountaineers to 11 NCAA Tournaments, including a Final Four and four Sweet 16’s. He’s won nearly 70% of all his games as a head coach and is arguably one of the best in college basketball, especially for someone outside of the nation’s blue blood programs.
And, he may soon once again be out of a job. That’s not because of anything on the court, but rather another transgression off it. Monday during an interview with a Cincinnati sports radio show, Huggins used an anti-gay slur when talking about his former rival school Xavier, a Catholic university for which there was no love lost with Cincinnati basketball. The derogatory slur, which was neither misconstrued nor accidental, made the national rounds pretty quickly. Which resulted in two things – an immediate apology from Huggins and immediate questions about whether Huggins is going to be fired. As of this recording, the latter hasn’t happened, but it’s still anyone’s guess.
A simple Google search will show you that more than a few college and high school coaches have been fired for things they’ve said, quite often racial slurs or racially insensitive language. A bunch more have been suspended, which typically comes with some form of sensitivity or diversity training. And sometimes, a coach will preemptively step down, especially when the ending seems inevitable. In most cases, you’ll find people who strongly agree and disagree with whatever the decision is. You’ll hear arguments about being allowed to make mistakes, or someone’s history, or what the athletes say, and so on. And as much as there do appear to be some bright lines, there’s plenty of grey space as well. I certainly can’t say there’s any sort of consistency in decision making, especially given the escalating influence of media – social and otherwise.
I won’t tell you whether I think that Bob Huggins should be fired. In full disclosure, I’m not his biggest fan, so any opinion I have would be filtered through that lens. And as much as I never want to see someone’s entire career ended by one quote, it’s hard not to recognize a much larger pattern here. But the question here isn’t about Bob Huggins. It’s about the place and responsibility of a major Division I men’s basketball coach, who, along with big time DI football coaches, are often the most highly paid and influential public employees in their state – and ones who represent the ideals of academic institution. They’re also employees that are judged far more like their professional counterparts than their academic peers. In other words, for Bob Huggins and his contemporaries, the name of the game is winning.
All of this creates an odd confluence in trying to contextualize the true job description for a big-time college coach – much less what constitutes success. On the one hand, Bob Huggins should be held to a higher standard, a no tolerance policy, because that’s the deal when you take the job. On the other hand, when winning is all that matters, it’s easy to talk about second chances. And while I don’t know the right answer, I will leave you with this. Last weekend, the coach of my older son’s high school club soccer team screamed at the officials after the game for some bad calls. And not surprisingly, the kids joined in – including my own – because that’s what kids do. And I completely tore into my son on the drive home and told him how unacceptable his behavior was, in a tone I now regret. And I also acknowledged that even though my son was wrong, it was the coach who gave license to that behavior.
I suppose I feel the same way about Bob Huggins. It’s not just that what he said was wrong. It’s that what he says and does has meaning. Which is why when you’re a high-profile college basketball coach, there are things you just cannot say. This is likely one of them. Of course, that’s not the first time Bob Huggins has been taught that lesson.
Keith Strudler is the director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him on twitter at @KeithStrudler
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