ASHLAND — Huggy Bear is coming to Ashland.
The Ashland University men’s basketball program and the 212 Club is holding a fundraiser at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 23 called, A Night with Bob Huggins where the 2022 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee will host a VIP cocktail hour followed by an interactive speech along with silent raffles, tip boards, a dinner and a meet and greet with AU student athletes and coaches.
Ashland University coach John Ellenwood hopes to make it a series of events to raise money for the basketball program’s bright future.
“We are going to try to get a different speaker every year,” Ellenwood said. “Right now, it is just basketball but we may even try to branch out to other areas. We want people the locals want to hear from and who will proved an interesting Ted-type talk. Bob Huggins is the best one to start us off.”
Huggins has had a legendary coaching career with more than 900 victories, he is just the sixth men’s college basketball coach to reach the milestone, during stops at Walsh, Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State and West Virginia. He has been to 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 as 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 26-0 record during his senior season and was the Ohio Player of the Year in 1972. All the while, his father built a basketball farm on the family’s property in Carroll County. It turned into a place to hold team camps every summer.
“If you talk about Ohio basketball, you have to look at 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 a lot of basketball programs. The toughness that raised Bob Huggins and his family was taught through basketball and they gave that to anyone who wanted to go to that camp.
“You walk away from that camp with the desire to find a way to win and it is that toughness that was instilled in every program that goes through that cam, it all started with the Huggins family,” Ellenwood said. “That is a special thing that people can relate to.”
It will be the theme of Huggins’s appearance which will be held 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 Oct. 14.
“Everyone wants to hear from him,” Ellenwood said. “Where he is in his career, I think he has a lot to say about the change in the sport he coaches and the area of college athletics. I would love to hear from him now that he can step outside since he isn’t coaching and give us a fresh perspective of the landscape of these changes. I want to hear about that I think a lot of people do, too, and who better to tell it than him?”
Ellenwood is supposed to be working 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 is such a great storyteller,” Ellenwood said. “What makes Bob Huggins great is that he is one of those coaches who can relate to the average basketball fan. He has never been worried about the glitz and the glory. He has always been the guy who grew up in rural Ohio. People should want to hear those stories.”
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If You Go:
What: A Night with Bob Huggins presented by the 212 Club and featuring Ashland University Men’s Basketball.
When: 6 p.m. VIP Cocktail Hour featuring Bob Huggins and special guests (VIP only). 7 p.m. Event begins; Wednesday, Oct. 23.
Where: Mount Vernon Estates, 1041 US-250, Ashland.
How much?: $1,000 VIP Table Packages. $100 individual tickets. Reserve tickets by Oct. 14. Business casual attire requested.
What else?: Event will also include a dinner, silent raffle, tip boards and meet and greet with AU Student-Athletes and coaches.
For those interested in purchasing tickets, visit https://www.givecampus.com/schools/AshlandUniversity/a-night-with-bob-huggins
