Sunday, June 18, 2023

Venality Trumps Joy, Anything Goes

When Money Plays Enabling Brutes, Betting, Booze Abuse
Out Goes Discipline, Principles, Order, Healthy Youth

Pampered BIGMAN 

2004 (June 8) Fairfax, Ohio
  • Subject is arrested for “driving under the influence”
  • Judge orders $350-fine, court costs, 3-day attendance at state-certified intervention program
  • Subject (University of Cincinnati head coach) pleads “no contest”
  • 2005 (spring) University of Cincinnati assistant coach and 2 players and a recruit are arrested
  • 2005 (August) University of Cincinnati president notes athletic program under Huggins unfit, besmirching of academic reputation, firing imminent
  • 2005 University of Cincinnati Head Coach Huggins pockets $3M buyout, resigns, takes a rest, and moves on to another college coaching gig.

Rooting out ROT (an attempt)
Twenty years ago, Educational Leader Nancy L. Zimpher curtailed a bit of Huggins’ influence on youth.


She is a native of the southeastern Ohio village of Gallipolis (44 miles from Charleston, West Virginia) and an Ohio State University undergraduate through doctoral level); a prolific author, researcher and educational leader “recognized for work in teacher preparation, urban education, and university-community engagement.”

Dr. Zimpher is currently said to be serving on the Board of Governors of the New York Academy of Sciences and the National Association of System Heads.


Brief Resume` Excerpt 

  • Ohio State University professorship, executive dean of Professional Colleges, dean of College of Education (circa 1979-1993-1998)
  • University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (1998-2003) Chancellor
  • University of Cincinnati (2003-2009) President
  • State University of New York (2009-2017) Chancellor
https://www.suny.edu/about/leadership/chancellor-nancy-zimpher/biography/
https://news.osu.edu/?q=Zimpher&search.x=0&search.y=0
https://news.osu.edu/board-appoints-deans-to-key-roles/

ROT Tough to Uproot


2010 Reporting from West Virginia

  • (Subject holds 10-year-$20M contract threatening firing “for substance abuse affecting his job performance”)
  • 2008, Huggins “tripped on a cone on an airport tarmac while checking phone messages and fell and hit his head.”
  • 2009 (summer), “Huggins got two black eyes when he walked into a door in the middle of the night.”
  • 2010 (week of July 2) “in Las Vegas” Huggins was “hospitalized” “for several days”


Excuses yield Impunity

West Virginia University athletic director Oliver Luck: (Charleston Daily Mail reported): “Huggins had taken medication on an empty stomach …before breaking seven ribs falling into the coffee table in a Las Vegas hotel room” ‘Believe me … Coach Huggins could care less …, as could I, in terms of what other people think.’”

West Virginia University President: The UWV head coach is “‘just a fellow who worked too hard or wasn’t rested right and he fell. It happens to everybody.’”
(News “West Virginia blames coach Bob Huggins’ fall on medication” by Jeff Eisenberg July 30, 2010, https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-jeff-eisenberg/west-virginia-blames-coach-bob-huggins-fall-medication.html)

Twenty-plus years on


After Cincinnati then Blowing through Kansas State University (2006-2007) and West Virginia University (2007-June 2023) Robert Edward Huggins returns to a Police Blotter (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

June 16, 2023, arrest and charge Driving under the influence of alcohol

  • Scene: subject in vehicle (SUV) with “flat and shredded tire,’ door on driver’s side partly open, vehicle blocking traffic; interior of vehicle “bags of empty beer containers”
  • Breathalyzer finding: subject’s “blood alcohol content” more than twice 0.08 percent legal limit: “0.21 percent”
  • Police officers report the subject’s mentioning “Columbus, Ohio a few times” and unclear response to their query about “what city he was in.”
The distance between Morgantown, West Virginia (home of WVU) and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 75 miles and the distance between Morgantown, West Virginia, and Columbus, Ohio is 205 miles.

June 17 and 18, 2023 Reporting 

“Robert Edward Huggins” filed at Wikipedia under “Resignation and Retirement”
“On June 17, 2023, Huggins released a statement announcing his resignation from West Virginia (and) his retirement.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Huggins
News
“Bob Huggins’ relationship with alcohol cost him everything.” Sam Snelling, June 18, 2023 https://www.rockmnation.com/2023/6/18/23764929/bob-huggins-relationship-with-alcohol-cost-him-everything


Venality and Impunity Rarely Mate 

with Common Sense
Health and Welfare, Individual and Societal Imperatives
Principled Teachers including Coaches (frequently tested exemplary modelers, influencers)
Education and Reeducation, on-the-job training and retraining
“Athletes [including coaches] should abstain from alcohol to avoid the negative impact this drug may have on recovery and sporting performance.”

However, the current state of affairs s that athletes “often consume greater volumes of alcohol through bingeing behavior (than is evident in) the general population.”

Therefore, people who are responsible for the wellbeing of athletes (educators, coaches, managers, administrators)—including the athletes themselves—should carefully monitor habitual alcohol consumption so that the generic negative health and social outcomes associated with heavy alcohol use are avoided.”
Associate Professor Matthew Barnes PhD, BSc (Hons) is Massey University (New Zealand) is Deputy Head of the School of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition whose research interests include “Alcohol and sports performance,” “Skeletal muscle recovery,” “Resistance exercise,” and “Sports performance” https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/expertise/profile.cfm?stref=710050

Barnes, Matthew J. “Alcohol: impact on sports performance and recovery in male athletes.” PMID: 24748461 DOI: 10.1007/s40279-014-0192-8 Abstract https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24748461/



Unleashing a chronic abuser (as teacher, coach, trainer, modeler, influencer) onto experimenting, impressionable minds—indeed, enabling a “chosen” one and instilling in younger generations the expectation of enabling, excuses, impunity—is committing a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Athletics (and other sectors) characterized by self-indulgence and venality (all things purchasable, all reduced to stakes and wagers); criminal carelessness feeding on itself has serious consequences in arresting (stunting) healthy mental and physical growth in the young, denying of appreciation of sport as art for its own sake and discipline; and in the whole society, destroying or removing humanity’s essential consciousness of pure joy.




Composition and Commentary excluding quoted material and individual images
Copyright © Carolyn LaDelle Bennett
Author’s links: www.BennettsAmericanEpitaph.com
https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett
https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/
https://www.xlibris.com/en/search?query=Carolyn+LaDelle+Bennett
https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/828689-epitaph

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