ASHLAND – Huggy Bear is coming to Ashland.
The Ashland University men’s basketball program and Club 212 are hosting a fundraiser at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23, titled An Evening with Bob Huggins, which will feature the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall inductee of Fame 2022 will host a VIP cocktail followed by an interactive event. speech accompanied by silent raffles, advice panels, dinner and a meet and greet with UA student-athletes and coaches.
Ashland University coach John Ellenwood hopes to host a series of events to raise money for the basketball program’s bright future.
“We’re going to try to have a different speaker every year,” Ellenwood said. “Right now it’s just basketball, but we might even try to expand into other areas. We want people that the locals want to hear and who will prove to be an interesting type of talk Ted. Bob Huggins is the best to start with.
Huggins had a legendary coaching career with over 900 victories. He is just the sixth men’s college basketball coach to reach this milestone, with stops at Walsh, Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State and West Virginia. He appeared in 24 NCAA tournaments, leading his teams to nine Sweet 16 appearances, four Elite Eight berths and two Final Fours. He averaged 23 wins per season and is the second coach to win 300 games at two different schools, Cincinnati and West Virginia.
He had quite the high school basketball career in Port Washington, Ohio, playing for his father, Charles, at Indian Valley South. He led his team to a 26-0 record during his senior season and was Ohio’s player of the year in 1972. During this time, his father was building a basketball farm on the property family in Carroll County. It became a place to hold team camps every summer.
“If you talk about Ohio basketball, you have to think of the Huggins family as royalty,” Ellenwood said. “Whether they want to be known that way or not. They are very humble. Eastern Ohio has shaped many basketball programs. The toughness that raised Bob Huggins and his family was taught through basketball and they gave it to everyone who wanted to go to that camp.
“You leave this camp wanting to find a way to win and it’s that toughness that’s been instilled in every program that comes through this camera. It all started with the Huggins family,” Ellenwood said. “It’s a special thing that people can relate to.”
This will be the theme of Huggins’ appearance which will take place at Mount Vernon Estates at 1041 US-250 in Ashland. VIP table packages are available for $1,000 with individual tickets set at $100. All tickets and tables must be reserved by October 14.
“Everyone wants to hear it,” Ellenwood said. “Wherever he is in his career, I think he has a lot to say about change in the sport he coaches and in college athletics. I’d like to hear it now that he can come out since he’s not coaching and give us a new perspective on the landscape of these changes. I want to hear about it, I think a lot of people do too, and who better to say it than him?
Ellenwood is supposed to work the event, but he may find himself wide-eyed like a kid in a basketball factory listening to Huggins.
“He has so many stories and he’s such a great storyteller,” Ellenwood said. “What makes Bob Huggins great is that he is one of those coaches that the average basketball fan can relate to. He never cared about the glitz and glory. He was always the guy who grew up in rural Ohio People should I want to hear these stories.
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If you go:
What: An Evening with Bob Huggins presented by the 212 Club and featuring Ashland University men’s basketball.
When: 6 p.m. VIP Cocktail with Bob Huggins and special guests (VIP only). 7:00 p.m. Start of the event; Wednesday October 23.
Or: Mount Vernon Estates, 1041 US-250, Ashland.
How much?: $1,000 VIP table packages. Individual $100 tickets. Reserve your tickets before October 14. Business casual attire required.
What else?: The event will also include dinner, a silent raffle, advice panels and a meet-and-greet with UA student-athletes and coaches.
For those interested in purchasing tickets, visit https://www.givecampus.com/schools/AshlandUniversity/a-night-with-bob-huggins
This article was originally published in the Mansfield News Journal: UA to host special event featuring legendary Ohio basketball figure Bob Huggins
