The Norma Mae Huggins Cancer Research Fund is based at WVU’s Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center and until late last year had somewhere between $35,000 and $38,000 in its account. Then Bob Huggins, late Norma Mae’s son, rolled up his sleeves and got deeply involved in adding to that number.
A series of roasts and salutes that goof on and glorify the men’s basketball coach have multiplied the previous sum by about 13. Thirteen! The fund now has more then $467,000.
In the last nine months, Huggins roasts and dinners in Morgantown (approximately $108,000), Washington, Pa. ($60,000) and Fairmont ($40,000) have provided matchable funds.
Added to that, the coach said, is the sale of stuffed “Huggie Bear” toys – with the bear’s face resembling the coach’s mug – and T-shirts by his sister, Debbie Huggins Bradford, and the WVU Hospitals gift shop, has yielded another $10,000 (huggiebearproducts.com).
“Huggs intends to keep doing this,” Armistead said. “The first (roast) he got it rolling, but since then people have come to him (from The Meadows Racetrack in Washington, Pa., and Westchester Village in Fairmont, through Huggins’ good friend, Jim Sears) about doing these dinners.
“He tells them, ‘These are my rules,’ and it goes from there. His goal is to get a couple million dollars in there at least. You don’t touch the principle. The interest earnings provide the funds. We apply to the state for the matching funds.”
But seriously, keep writing and talking about graduation rates and sideline conduct …
