Bob Huggins' Hall-of-Fame father, Charlie, dies at age 87 - Dominion Post
MORGANTOWN — Charlie Huggins, the father of West Virginia men’s basketball head coach Bob Huggins, died Tuesday. He was 87. Charlie Huggins could best be described as […]
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Last Of The Purple Riders: 67 - The 1967 State Champions - Strasburg Tigers
Legendary basketball coach Charlie Huggins passes away
Legendary boys high school basketball coach Charlie Huggins passed away early Tuesday at the age of 87.
www.dispatch.com
Legendary basketball coach Charlie Huggins passes away
Lee Morrison
The Times-Reporter
Charlie Huggins, who established a legacy of high school boys basketball coaching success ranked as the all-time best in Ohio, has died at age 87.
He died Tuesday in Truman House in New Philadelphia.
Huggins captured three small-school (Class A as it was known then) state championships — one at Strasburg in 1967 and two at the former Indian Valley South in 1972 and 1976.
He compiled an overall coaching record of 398-74 at Stone Creek, Strasburg, Conotton Valley, IVS and Hiland high schools. His overall winning percentage as a head coach — .843 — is the best of all time in the state of Ohio, according to the Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association.
He won the three state, seven regional, 10 district, 15 sectional and eight league championships during his 20 years of coaching.
Longtime Dover High School boys basketball coach Bob Von Kaenel, who has over 675 coaching wins himself, called Huggins a mentor.
"Coach Huggins was a man who taught the game with a demand for doing everything correctly ALL the time," said Von Kaenel. "He was a mentor to me, and I went to him for advice throughout my entire career. As a coach, he demanded mental toughness, and awarded effort. He taught you life lessons and was respected by everyone. He was ahead of his time as a technician. I admired his coaching ability. I loved Coach."
Huggins also conducted the highly respected Eastern Ohio Basketball Camp in Sherrodsville from 1969-2010, which is currently operated by his son Larry and his family.
Ray Booth of Newcomerstown went to Huggins’ basketball camp between his junior and senior year of 1972 at the former Madison High School.
Booth, who was a little over 5-foot-10 guard found himself playing center and facing 6-3 All-American Bob Huggins. Charlie’s son Bob is currently head coach of the men’s basketball team at West Virginia University, where he has over 900 wins, after successful stints at Walsh, Akron and Cincinnati.
“Charlie represented the area extremely well and his teams were respected all over the state of Ohio,” Booth said. “I still have from the program from the Class A State Tournament from Bobby’s senior year when they went undefeated and won the state championship.
“Charlie’s impact was incredible. Other coaches and fans knew about him, Indian Valley South and Tuscarawas County. It was all a testament to his ability to shape and guide young men in the sport of basketball.”
"He was a man who influenced us all," said Mike Gunther of Dover, who graduated from Indian Valley South High School in 1973 and was a member of the state champion 1972 team as well as the runner-up squad in 1973.
“It’s been a bad day in Bedrock today,” said Charlie Jones, a member of Strasburg’s 1967 state championship team. “We will always remember our state championship season. God bless coach."
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About 14 months ago, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jones spent an afternoon reminiscing with Huggins.
“Charlie always had me on a short leash, under his thumb,” Jones said. “I resented it somewhat at the time, and thought he was picking on me. But as I got older, I realized that he knew if he kept me in line, the other guys on the team would follow. He stepped up and gave me the discipline and focus that I needed at the time. I can still hear him yelling at me. I hope that someday when I'm playing for The Lord’s team, Charlie will be coaching. I say that now with a lot of respect and love in my heart for Coach Huggins.”
Jones said that Bob Huggins was in sixth grade when he’d be with his dad at practice. “I always say that I taught Bobby how to shoot,” Jones said.
Jones said Huggins was a master at making adjustments, breaking down opponents’ defenses and was even better at taking away other teams’ strengths.
“Charlie and his assistant Jim Bieleski, were equally adept coaching the transition game or a slow-paced game. Charlie’s rigorous three-hour practices were legendary and so intense, it made the games seem easy. He ran a disciplined ship, evidenced by his team of crew cut hair styles, his 50-lap penalty if caught with a girlfriend during hoops season, (a second violation meant being kicked off the team) or his one-lap per point when the opponent scored above 45. His legacy was developing players to shoot accurately and play defense, but more importantly, teaching discipline, character and turning kids into responsible young men.”
However, it was Huggins who was primarily responsible for a battle with Mother Nature while en route to a semi-final game in St. John Arena in Columbus, where his son, Larry, eventually would play for The Ohio State men’s basketball team.
“Coach kept us in Strasburg the night before our state semi-final game so we could sleep in our own beds,” Jones said. “However, the next morning a huge blizzard hit the state and created a treacherous journey for the cars carrying the team to St. John Arena. One vehicle actually did a 360-degree spin and nearly crashed in the heavy snow. Coach was driving my car and we slid into a snow bank and had to be pushed out. The trip, which normally lasted two hours, took four hours.”
He recalled players running to the arena, to change into their uniforms.
“When we hit the floor for warm-ups — after the intense, four-hour journey — the clock showed only 11 minutes before the 1:30 p.m. tip-off. Maybe that’s why we fell 14 points behind by halftime. But, our second-half comeback was monumental and then we scored on a buzzer beater to win by one point. Oh my!”
After the 55-54 win over Southeastern, the Tigers won the state championship with a 54-47 victory over Arcanum.
Although such memories remain vivid to the players and fans, Huggins didn't exactly spend a lot of time living in the past — impressive as it was.
Times-Reporter Sports Correspondent Darrin Lautenschleger wrote an article about the legendary coach in 2015.
A visit with Huggins reveals that he doesn’t sit around replaying old games and championships in his mind or on his TV, and he certainly hasn’t built a shrine of hoops memorabilia at his New Philadelphia home, Lautenschleger wrote. Outside of a few old team photos, Huggins’ family room primarily displays pictures and items from his family and looks like that of many 81-year-old grandfathers who are proud of the accomplishments of their children and grandchildren — on and off the playing courts and fields.
In fact, he just likes being “a fan” at basketball games now.
“I never really think about it a lot,” he said behind a soft, genuine smile while talking about his coaching career that shined the state’s basketball light brightly on Tuscarawas County for many years and produced playing and coaching styles and strategies that still have a strong influence locally and around Ohio. “It was just all we ever wanted to do and what we enjoyed doing.”
But as the saying goes: “Ball don’t lie,” and in the case of Huggins, the numbers and accomplishments don’t lie either.
The Charlie Huggins era as a head coach at Stone Creek, Strasburg, Conotton Valley, Indian Valley South and Hiland covered 20 seasons and spanned the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and is among the most impressive in Ohio basketball history.
The 1976 IVS state championship is the last time a Tuscarawas County school has won a state boys’ basketball title. Numerous county schools have advanced to the state tournament since then, and several have played in state championship games, but the big trophy has eluded them.
Huggins, who retired from coaching in1984, said that while his teams’ No. 1 goal each season was to win a state championship, he doesn’t dwell much on the three times his teams actually did finish as champs.
“I hopefully didn’t get wrapped up too much in personal glory, and we wanted our players to appreciate that, too,” he said. “We weren’t in it just to win games and get public accolades. We wanted them to reach their potential, as basketball players and people who would go on and make positive contributions to their community.”
Huggins said his best memories of his days as a head coach involve the relationships he had with his players, other students and community members at the schools. And it has been equally enjoyable for him to see his players grow into adults with their own careers and families.
“We hope we helped them along the way some in the time they spent with us,” he said.
Huggins, who grew up just outside Morgantown, West Virginia, said he landed in Tuscarawas County in the 1950s for a very simple reason: “I needed a job.”
So he accepted a teaching and coaching position at Midvale High School that paid $2,900 a year and launched his career as his family would grow to include seven children.
“It’s been home and I enjoy it here,” he said about living and working in Tuscarawas County. “People still care here and have values, and support their young people.”
An excellent basketball player at Morgantown High who earned a scholarship to West Virginia University before playing three years of basketball and graduating from Alderson-Broaddus College, Huggins said he learned the lessons of hard work and dedication from his father.
“My dad worked at the water company in Morgantown and then took care of the 33-acre farm we lived on,” he said. “He never stopped me from playing basketball, and I was grateful for that, because I could see how hard he worked himself. He was one in a million, I thought. He maybe came to a half dozen of my games through the years — it was a lot different then.”
Huggins channeled that same work ethic and demanded that his players follow it too, emphasizing the fundamentals of the game, especially hard-nosed defense. Team and individual performance goals were established, practiced over and over, and were met — or else.
“Fundamentals are fundamentals for success at everything,” Huggins said. “We told our players what we wanted from them and what they should work on. I couldn’t be with them and watch over them all the time, so they had to do it on their own.
“Those that did got better, and those that didn’t, well, it showed.”
Some of the hallmarks from the Huggins era included a dedication to mental toughness and long practices — going over the same drills and plays repeatedly to have them completed as close to perfection as possible. Other hallmarks: “jumping” on officials from the start to the finish of games, and, most of all, winning.
Opposing teams and fans, along with coaches from around the state, marveled at how the Huggins-coached teams performed no matter the situation, and many began studying his program for tips. After all, if small schools in Eastern Ohio could do it, they could, too.
Huggins can pull out some old, yellowed, index cards separated by general player position that are covered front and back in his writing. They served as guides for his individual and team practice drills, and as building blocks toward improvement and reaching potential.
“We told them that you will reach your potential when you walk across the floor to accept the trophy after winning the state championship game,” Huggins said.
Basketball never stopped for Huggins. He founded the Eastern Ohio Basketball Camp at Sherrodsville more than 50 years ago, and it is a continuing success. Besides the benefits of teaching basketball to campers, Huggins said the camp was opened for another reason: “I always wanted to have a Christian-based camp,” he said. “The best kind of camp I could provide to do that was a basketball camp.”
When pressed to talk about some of his teams and players, Huggins said they all were unique and special in their own way, and he enjoyed all of them. He said he loved the small-town atmosphere and rivalries that were played out in and around the county.
He enjoyed watching basketball and other sports — especially when his grandchildren played and whenever eldest son Bob’s teams were in action at WVU — and said he does not get caught up in studying or being concerned by coaching styles and strategies.
“I didn’t like it when I was doing it and people were being critical about it, and I certainly am not going to be like that with any coaches now when I’m watching,” he said. “I just like watching the games as a fan and watching the players compete and do their best.
“It is nice to be a fan, too.”
Even if many people still recognize Huggins as one of the best high school basketball coaches the state of Ohio has ever seen.
Private graveside services will be held Sunday, May 2, 2021, in Sherrodsville Memorial Gardens. Baxter-Gardner Funeral Home in Sherrodsville is handling the arrangements.
In lieu of flowers, for contributions in Charlie's memory, checks should be made payable to the Norma Mae Huggins Cancer Foundation, Inc., Attn: Rocky Gianola, 1714 Mileground Road, Morgantown, West Virginia 26505. The foundation is named after Huggins' wife, who died May 24, 2003.
The Huggins family will be present at the camp (Eastern Ohio Sports Complex), 8155 Dawn Road SW, Sherrodsville, on May 2, from 5:30 until 8:30 p.m. to welcome anyone who would like to stop by to visit and reminisce about Charlie. To leave an online condolence message visit the funeral home website.
(Contributing to this story were T-R Sports Editor Roger Metzger, along with T-R Sports Correspondent Darrin Lautenschleger.)
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