Retired Hall of Fame basketball coach Bob Huggins has a “progressive cognitive condition" that has started to impact his memory "and aspects of his daily life,” his family said.
Huggins’ family released a statement on his health in coordination with the University of Cincinnati Athletics Department ahead of the 73-year-old's induction into the school's Athletics Hall of Fame.
The family kept the matter private over the past several months but believes now is “an appropriate time to share the news with the many people who have supported Bob throughout his remarkable career,” the statement said.
Cincinnati’s Hall of Fame induction is Friday night. Others inductees include Jason Kelce and former Philadelphia Eagles’ teammate Connor Barwin. The statement said Huggins was “looking forward to returning to Cincinnati this weekend, celebrating with former players and friends, and sharing in a moment that recognizes not only his accomplishments, but also the enduring bonds formed along the way.”
“Although Bob and his family recognize the challenges that lie ahead, they remain focused on the relationships, experiences, and moments that bring him joy,” the statement said.
Huggins compiled a 935-414 head coaching record at five colleges that included 16-year stints each at Cincinnati and West Virginia, where he took both schools to the Final Four.
Former Huggins pupil Jerrod Calhoun was named Cincinnati’s coach in March. Calhoun graduated from Cincinnati in 2004 and was a student assistant under Huggins during the 2003-04 season. He also spent five seasons on Huggins’ staff at West Virginia from 2007-12.
Huggins' teams were NCAA Tournament staples, and included all-Americans Danny Fortson and Steve Logan and 2000 AP national Player of the Year Kenyon Martin for the Bearcats. Cincinnati reached the Final Four under Huggins in 1992 before losing to Michigan in the national semifinals.
At West Virginia, Huggins landed few high-profile recruits. The 2010 West Virginia team won the Big East tournament and defeated top-seeded Kentucky along its ride to the national semifinals before losing to Duke.
Huggins was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in September 2022.
Eight months later during an appearance on a Cincinnati radio station, Huggins used a homophobic slur to refer to Xavier fans while also denigrating Catholics. Under an agreement with West Virginia after the remarks, Huggins was suspended for three games at the start of the 2023-24 season, took a $1 million salary reduction and was required to undergo sensitivity training.
Then, in June 2023, Huggins was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in Pittsburgh. He resigned the next day and issued his second public apology in a month.
It was his second drunken driving arrest. The other occurred in 2004 while he was at Cincinnati and led to his firing in 2005 in a power struggle with the school’s president. After spending one season at Kansas State, Huggins took his dream job at West Virginia in 2007. He was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, grew up in Ohio where his father molded three state high school champion teams, and was a three-year letter winner in basketball at West Virginia.
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FILE - Bob Huggins arrives for the Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony in Springfield, Mass, Sept. 10, 2022, in Springfield, Mass. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)
FILE - West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins reacts to a call in the second half of a first-round college basketball game against Maryland in the NCAA Tournament in Birmingham, Ala., March 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Butch Dill, File)
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Vice President JD Vance defended an ad Wednesday by Vivek Ramaswamy that features the estranged mother of Dr. Amy Acton, his Democratic opponent for Ohio governor, and spotlights the abuse she experienced as a child, even as the Republican in a tight race to retain Vance's seat in the Senate distanced himself from the ad.
During a campaign visit to Ohio, Vance told reporters he was “disgusted” by fellow Republicans who were pushing back against the ad, then later drew cheers at a political rally when he defended Ramaswamy, a biotech billionaire and 2024 presidential candidate.
Vance said he has watched Democrats “throw every dirty trick in the political book at Vivek,” who he considers a close personal friend -- including calling him a ‘murderer' — while “the whole time Vivek has stood tall and talked about what he wants to accomplish.”
“And now the media and the Democrats in the state of Ohio are obsessed because, guess what, Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out as it is and calls Amy Acton a liar,” he said.
During the same rally, U.S. Sen. Jon Husted shared the stage with Vance and Ramaswamy, but steered clear of discussing the ad, in which Acton’s birth mother, Donna Arthur, calls her daughter “a liar” and insinuates that she has mental health issues. Arthur lost custody of her children after their stepfather was indicted for raping Acton and the candidate has not seen her since 1978.
“I would not have run that ad,” Husted said in a statement to The Associated Press. A day earlier, his Democratic opponent, former Sen. Sherrod Brown, called the spot “disgusting” and said everybody — including Husted — should denounce it.
Acton, Ohio's former state health director, spent the day traveling to a previously scheduled campaign appearance in rural Wyandot County, in the northwestern part of the state. Her campaign also released a new positive ad, which — somewhat ironically — featured her appealing to voters to “find more breathing room, and let's heal what has divided us.” She has made no secret of facing homelessness and abuse as a child.
In Cincinnati, the vice president said “politics is a tough business” and that the contents of Ramaswamy's ad were “not really my concern.” He said he was focused on supporting Republican candidates in the midterm elections.
“I’m a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America,” Vance said in his first public comments on the ad, which has roiled one of the most contentious and expensive governor's races in the country.
The video was criticized by both Democrats and Republicans when it exploded into public view Tuesday, just two weeks before Election Day.
Nikki Haley, who sparred with Ramaswamy during the 2024 Republican presidential primary over the personal nature of his attacks, called him "a bad guy” in a social media post Tuesday. “It’s a shame he continues to get away with it,” she wrote. Meghan McCain called it “dastardly” and Dan Hauser, a long-time aide to Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, said he deleted his post sharing the video once he realized “the very serious accusations that caused their issues.”
The Ramaswamy campaign's initial statement on the ad did not claim responsibility for its production, but the candidate eventually did so when he spoke to reporters at an evening campaign event. His campaign will spend $4 million to air it on TV and online in the closing weeks of the race, despite the backlash. He didn't address the ad in remarks at the rally where Vance spoke outside Cincinnati.
Police and court records show Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged with the rape of his stepdaughter, then 12, in July 1978, after Acton’s biological father reported him to authorities. The abuse allegedly happened from December 1976 to April 1978. Cledith Arthur, who has since died, failed to show for a court appearance and became a fugitive.
Acton said she has not seen her mother since she appeared in a courtroom in the late 1970s. Her campaign on Tuesday posted a video of her brother who supported her backstory about living in a tent and being abused.
Vance told reporters before the rally that Acton “lies about every single one of her positions.”
Acton's campaign declined to respond to Vance's comments, saying that her painful backstory was not the centerpiece of her run for governor.
Michael Wedding, 20, came to Vance's rally Wednesday — but not to support Ohio's Republican ticket. He said he would be parting with his large Republican family and vote for Acton for governor, adding that he attended the rally in large part to see Ramaswamy in person.
He said he had seen the ad and found it “very, very gross.”
“She was sexually abused as a child," he said of Acton, "and I thought it was kind of scummy that they would use that in an advertisement. I don’t think it’s right to use her sexual abuse as a kid, or give any sort of platform to that.”
Binkley reported from Washington. Associated Press video journalist Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos contributed to this story from Sharonville, Ohio.
From left, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, and gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy attend a campaign rally at the Sharonville Convention Center, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Sharonville, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
President Donald Trump listens a gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks at a campaign rally at the Covelli Centre, in Youngstown, Ohio, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Vice President JD Vance speaks during a campaign rally at the Sharonville Convention Center, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Sharonville, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
