West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins suspended for anti-gay slur

May 10 (UPI) -- West Virginia suspended Bob Huggins for three games and made several alterations to his contract in response to an anti-gay slur he used during a radio interview, the school announced Wednesday afternoon.

Huggins will be suspended for the Mountaineers' first three games of the 2023-24 season. His annual salary will be reduced by $1 million. West Virginia said his multi-year contract was amended immediately to become a "year-by-year" agreement.

Huggins' comments came during an interview Monday on 700 WLW's Bill Cunningham Show. Heavily criticized for the comments on social media, with several users calling for his dismissal, Huggins apologized later that day. He issued another apology Wednesday through a school media release.

The Hall of Fame coach was speaking about former rival Xavier, a Cincinnati-area school he faced during his previous tenure as coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats. Huggins used the anti-gay slur in a sentence while referencing "Catholics." Xavier is the oldest Catholic college in Ohio.

"Over the past 48 hours, I have reflected on the awful words that I shared on a radio program earlier this week," Huggins wrote. "I deeply regret my actions, the hurt they unfairly caused others and the negative attention my words have brought to West Virginia University."

In a joint statement issued Wednesday, West Virginia president E. Gordon Gee and athletic director Wren Baker called the Huggins comments "derogatory and offensive."

"It was inexcusable," Gee and Baker said. "It was a moment that unfairly and inappropriately hurt many people and has tarnished West Virginia University."

Gee and Baker said they made it "explicitly clear" to Huggins that "any incidents of similar derogatory and offensive language will result in immediate termination."

West Virginia said its athletic department will partner with the school's LGBTQ+ Center to develop annual training sessions to "address all aspects of inequality, including homophobia, transphobia, sexism, ableism and more."

Huggins and all current and future coaching staff members will be required to participate in that training. He also will be required to meet with leadership from the schools' Carruth Center to "better understand the mental health crisis facing [West Virginia] students, particularly those in marginalized communities."

The $1 million taken from Huggins' salary will be used to "directly support" the school's LGBTQ+ Center, the Caruth Center and other state and national organizations that "support marginalized communities," the university said.

Huggins said he "made a personal donation" to Xavier's Center for Faith and Justice and the school's Center for Diversity and Inclusion.

Huggins, 69, coached at Cincinnati from 1989-90 through 2004-05. The 2022 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee posted a 398-128 record in his 16 seasons at Cincinnati.

Huggins, who has an overall record of 863-389 in 38 years of coaching, also spent time at Akron and Kansas State. He was hired at West Virginia in 2007.