WVU basketball coach Bob Huggins has honored his late mother, Norma Mae, for years.
After she passed away of colon cancer in May of 2003 at the age of 68, he established a research fund in her name through WVU's Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center.
He's been tireless in seeking funding, whether from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Little General stores here in West Virginia or simply through local fish fries.
Today, on Mother's Day, Huggins and his kids will honor his wife, June. Fresh off the Big 12 meetings in Phoenix, he's finally getting some rare R&R.
Perhaps surprisingly, though, this is an early Father's Day story.
See, in less than two weeks, Huggins will have a chance to honor his dad. Charlie Huggins will join his son when he's inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame on May 21 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
Bob - or "Bobby" as it's listed on the Hall's web site - Huggins was inducted back in 2008. In case you're unaware, he was the Buckeye State's player of the year in 1972 while playing for his father at Indian Valley South High School. Of course, he then went on to coach at Ohio colleges Walsh, Akron and Cincinnati.
And while he was doing so, Charlie Huggins was winning. And winning. And winning.
His teams' all-time record was 398-74 (84 percent). He coached at Strasburg, Conotton Valley, Indian Valley South and Hiland. Within, there were eight league, 15 sectional, 10 district, seven regional and three state titles. He won his first state title at Strasburg and his son helped win one in '72. The other was at Indian Valley in '76. Eight times Charlie Huggins was named coach of the year.
I bring all this up because West Virginians might not know this about Charlie Huggins: He was one of ours.
Those in the Mountain State like to boast of successful coaches we've produced, like Nick Saban, Clair Bee, Lou Holtz, Cam Henderson, Ben Schwartzwalder, Fielding Yost, John McKay, Jimbo Fisher, Rich Rodriguez, Mike D'Antoni, Terry Bowden and others (not to mention Bob Huggins). Well, here's another.
Charlie Huggins grew up in Morgantown. He was a high school star in West Virginia. He played college ball here.
Didn't know? It's correct. In 1951, Charlie Huggins and now-Charleston legend Pete White were on the eight-player, all-class "Big All-State" first team, the former of Morgantown High and the latter of the old Clendenin High. (Some sophomore named Rod Hundley was on the second team.)
Charlie Huggins led MHS to the state semifinals before losing to Charleston High. Listed at 5-foot-11, 155 pounds, he set a record that stood for many years by making 16 straight free throws.
Surely that was something he bragged about to the kids, right?
"Nope," said Bob Huggins. "I didn't know anything about it until I came to school here. Everybody said he was a good player, but I didn't know the details."
The elder Huggins first went to WVU before transferring to Alderson-Broaddus, where he led the Battlers to the NAIA tournament. Afterward, he began the historic high school coaching career.
"He was a hell of a coach," said Bob Huggins. "He may still have the highest winning percentage of any coach in the history of Ohio."
The Mountaineer coach said his relationship with his father was "different than most."
"He was my dad, but he was also my coach," Huggins said. "He was like most dads - he wasn't around very much. I saw him on Sundays pretty much. He left for school before I got up and I was generally in bed before he got home.
"We have a good relationship. I'm just not around as much as the rest of the family."
Huggins pointed to his father's Eastern Ohio Basketball Camp, conducted from 1969 through 2010.
"He was mostly known for coaching at Indian Valley," Huggins said. "Had he stayed at Strasburg he probably would have won more state championships, but he left Strasburg so he could buy that camp. It's what he always wanted to do."
The camp was held in Sherrodsville, Ohio.
"He started the first overnight camp in the state of Ohio and we built it," Huggins said. "It was a camp in every sense. It became famous because he can really coach. He won a ton of games, man."
Charlie Huggins' teams were known for their defense. (Imagine that, right?) Those teams played matchup. And, yes, they pressed at times.
Now, Bob Huggins' father will be inducted beside Ohio Heritage Award Recipient Oscar Robertson, who will be the keynote speaker May 21 in Columbus.
It's something worth recognizing on this Mother's Day because - considering his son Bob's impact as well - Charlie Huggins is more than a key note in state sports history.
He's indeed a key figure.