NEW ORLEANS — Two legendary figures with strong ties to Northeast Ohio are about to be forever enshrined into the annals of basketball lore.
Indian Valley High School graduate Bob Huggins and former Cavaliers coach George Karl have both been elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The pair are among eight inductees in the Class of 2022, which was announced Saturday in New Orleans prior to the NCAA Division I men's basketball Final Four.
Though he was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, Huggins eventually moved with his family to Tuscarawas County, where he played under his father Charles at what was then Indian Valley South High School in Gnadenhutten. As a senior in 1972, he led the Braves to an undefeated season as well as their first-ever OHSAA boys basketball state championship.
Huggins played college ball at both Ohio and West Virginia before moving into the coaching ranks, taking the head job at Walsh University in North Canton at the age of just 27 in 1980. After guiding the Cavaliers to a pair of Mid-Ohio Conference titles in three seasons, Huggins went west to the University of Akron, where he earned an Ohio Valley Conference tournament crown and the program's first trip to the NCAA Tournament. The 15-seed Zips actually led No. 2 Michigan at halftime, but ended up falling 70-64 in the first round of the Midwest Regional.
Following five seasons in Summit County, "Huggy Bear" graduated to bigger and better things, with long tenures at Cincinnati and his alma mater West Virginia coupled with a one-year stint at Kansas State. He has taken both the Bearcats and the Mountaineers to the Final Four, and his 916 career wins place him 11th in men's college basketball history. At age 68, he is still on the sidelines in Morgantown.
Unlike Huggins, Karl's built his coaching resume at the pro level, and it all began in the summer of 1984 when the 33-year-old was promoted from the front office to head coach of the Cavs. At the time, Cleveland was still trying to recover from the disastrous Ted Stepien ownership, and had not been to the postseason in seven years. However, despite a miserable 2-19 start, the team rallied to finish the regular season 36-46 and stunned all prognosticators by snatching the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.
The upstart Cavaliers gave the top-seeded Boston Celtics everything they could handle, but the defending NBA champs wound up prevailing in four games, with all three wins coming by three points or less. Karl gained popularity in Cleveland and was even awarded the Key to the City by Mayor George V. Voinovich, but was suddenly fired in the middle of the 1985-86 campaign with a 25-42 record. He would be replaced on a full-time basis by Lenny Wilkins, who would take the Cavs to the playoffs five times and is himself a Hall of Famer.
Karl would go on to coach parts of 25 more seasons in Golden State, Seattle, Milwaukee, Denver, and Sacramento, piloting each club except the latter to the postseason at least once. His 1996 SuperSonics took the fabled 72-win Chicago Bulls all the way to Game 6 of the NBA Finals, and he later made the conference finals with both the Bucks and the Nuggets. His 1,175 wins are sixth-most all-time among NBA head coaches.
Huggins and Karl will both be formally inducted this summer in Springfield, Illinois. Other members of the Class of 2022 (players, unless noted) include:
- Manu Ginobili
- Tim Hardaway
- Swin Cash
- Lindsay Whalen
- Marianne Stanley (coach)
- Hugh Evans (official)