On Friday night, West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins will hold his annual Fish Fry, benefiting the Norma Mae Huggins Cancer Endowment Fund.
“I walked in there, it blew my mind the number of tables, the number of seats that are there, the people that are going to be there. We’re talking 2,600 people, something like that,” Huggins said of tonight’s event. “It’s amazing how it’s kind of taking off and become what it’s become. It also tells you a lot about the people in this state, and how much they believe in what we’re doing.”
The ultimate goal for Huggins is to build a cancer hospital in Morgantown, with the money from this endowment.
“I think to build a cancer hospital here in our state, would be one of the greatest things that would ever happen in this state,” Huggins said. “To be somebody who sat at my mother’s bed side as she died of cancer, it hits you pretty hard,” Huggins said. “I thought then if there’s anything that we could ever do so that wouldn’t happen to other people.”
Huggins said he has seen possible renderings of the future of the cancer hospital and he knows it will be a great thing for the state of West Virginia.
“To have that here in Morgantown, to have that here in our state, would be I think one of the great things that ever happened in our state. There’s certainly a lot of people who deserve a lot of credit for trying to push this thing forward,” Huggins said. “As we all know, there’s a whole lot of road blocks and people have been absolutely wonderful.”
As for the meantime, Huggins knows the impact the cancer center would have, but prefaces it by saying there is still work to be done.
“We got to keep fighting the fight and sooner or later, we’ll get to that magic number where we can start construction and hopefully soon have one of the premiere cancer centers staffed by some of the premeire doctors in the world here,” Huggins said. “Which I think is something that everybody would be excited about because it’s going to hit all of us in some form or fashion… it’s going to hit everybody and it hits you hard… To be able to do it here and feel comfortable in your home state, I think is a wonderful thing.”
Huggins said last year’s fish fry raised over $2.6 million and he expects this year to come close to matching that total.
“I think we raised 2.6 million last year at the fish fry and I would anticipate we would raise over 2 million this year,” Huggins said.
This year’s guest will be Charles Barkley. Last year’s guest was President of Barstool Sports Dave Portnoy as well as Kansas head men’s basketball coach Bill Self. Huggins said he talked to Barkley at his Hall of Fame induction ceremony and it was easy to get him to come — even before he knew his alma mater Auburn Tigers were playing the Mountaineers the next day.
“I’m walking down the stairs, he’s walking up the stairs. I said, ‘Charles I got to talk to you for a second,'” Huggins said. “I said, ‘I need you to come to the fish fry.’ I told him what it was for, cancer and my mother and he said, ‘yeah just call me and let me know.'”
You can find more information on the event and how to help benefit the endowment fund here.
