MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – On Friday night, Bob Huggins will become reacquainted with Akron - the school that gave him his Division I coaching start 37 years ago in 1984.
 
Huggins had coached three successful seasons at Walsh, leading the Cavaliers to a 34-1 record and an NAIA playoff appearance in 1983 before his coaching career went sideways.
 
Dear friend, Chuck Machock, who coached on Sonny Moran's West Virginia staff when Huggins was a Mountaineer player, gave Huggs the five-star recruiting pitch for him to join his Central Florida coaching staff. 
 
Huggins didn't want to go, but Machock eventually wore him down.
 
"He kept saying, 'You need to come down here and be my assistant. You need to take the next step in your coaching career,'" Huggins recalled earlier today. "Then we get down there and it wasn't anything like we were led to believe it was going to be."
 
It was soon evident to Huggins that Machock wasn't going to be around for long.
 
"I did everything I could do for that year I was there to help Chuck, went back to Ohio and recruited some kids, and Chuck was going to be let go. He knew it. I knew it and everybody knew it," Huggins said.
 
So, Huggins started sending out resumes to anyone who would take them.
 
"I thought maybe I could get a D-II job over in Western Pennsylvania because there were a few of them over there," Huggins said. "I went home one night and (his wife) June said, 'There's somebody on the phone for you.' I get on the phone and the guy on there said, 'You know, the Akron job is coming open.' I said, 'No, I didn't know that.'
 
"He asked if I was interested, and I told him I was," Huggins continued. "So about a week and a half or two weeks go by and I don't hear anything from this guy and I go home again and June said, 'It's the phone and it's for you.' The guy on the phone said, 'Are you ready to come home?' I said, 'Yep.' Then I said, 'Excuse me sir, can I ask who you are?' He said, 'I'm Dominic Guzzetta, the president of the University of Akron.' I said, 'Oh, yes sir, I'm all good!'"
 
Guzzetta had once served on Walsh's board of trustees and was familiar with Huggins' successful Walsh teams.
 
When Huggins went to Akron for his formal interview, Guzzetta gave the young coach some specific instructions when he dealt with the interview committee.
 
"He said, 'Don't piss anybody off,'" Huggins deadpanned.
 
In the meantime, just to make sure he crossed his Ts and dotted his Is, Huggins had Ohio State coach Eldon Miller place a call to Guzzetta on his behalf. Huggins had cut his teeth as a graduate assistant coach under Miller in the late 1970s.
 
"(Miller) calls me and I said, 'Well, what did he say?' and he said, 'He asked me what your two favorite colors were.' I asked Eldon why he asked that, and he didn't know. 'Well, what did you tell him?' He said, "Hell, I don't know what your favorite colors are!'"
 
Huggs went in to see Guzzetta one final time before Guzzetta was going to formally offer him the job. When Guzzetta asked him what his favorite colors were, Huggins answered blue and gold. He was tipped off beforehand not to answer green, a color Guzzetta hated.
 
"He hired me right there," Huggins said. "That's how I got the job."
 
It was during those years at Walsh and Akron when Huggins really blossomed into the great coach he is today. He also developed some pretty good marketing and promotional skills while at Akron as well. Wanting to get more people to come out and watch Akron basketball games, Huggins began going all over the city looking for businesses to buy basketball tickets.
 
He figured he could convince a CEO of some local company to buy a large block of tickets and give them to employees to come to the games. One such company he approached was Reiter Dairy.
 
One day, Huggins arranged a meeting with the owner.
 
"The guy there said, 'Hey, listen, we've only got a small advertising budget,'" Huggins recalled. "Well, as I walked in, I noticed they had a big ol' cow sitting outside and I said, 'What if we take that big cow you have outside and put it out in front of the arena before one of our games? It would be great advertising for you guys.'
 
"He said, 'For how long?' I told him he could keep it out there for a week or two and the guy agreed. He gave me their entire advertising budget, brought the cow down, and I thought it would be great," Huggins said.
 
No sooner was the massive cow put in front of the basketball arena when Huggins got a call from the president's office. It was Akron's new president, Bill Muse, who had replaced Guzzetta - the man who hired Huggins, of course.
 
"(Muse) said, 'Get rid of it!' I said, 'Well, we're going to need to talk about this,'" Huggins began. "So I went over and explained to him that we had gotten their whole advertising budget, we were going to pack the place with Reiter Dairy workers and besides, they had no money at Akron at the time.  He said, 'The minute that game is over get rid of that damned cow!'"
 
So, what was the hook? 
 
How was having a huge cow sitting outside the arena going to compel a bunch of Akron residents and local college basketball fans to buy tickets to the games? 
 
Free milk for a month?
 
"No, they get to sit in there and watch me coach!" Huggins joked.
 
It was during Huggins' second year at Akron in 1986 when the Zips won the Ohio Valley Conference and met fifth-ranked Michigan in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. His Akron team that year was basically made up of players he had either found off the street or borrowed from the Zips' football team.
 
Huggins became good friends with Akron coach Jim Dennison, who also doubled as the school's athletic director.
 
"Jim was one of the great people of all-time – and a great football coach – and he came in one day and watched us practice the first couple of times," Huggins said. "I had a 7-foot-2 center, and he quit 20 minutes into the first practice. The next day, a 6-foot-11 guy quit and the day after that another guy quit."
 
So, Dennison suggested that Huggins bring on some of his taller football players such as 6-foot-4 tight end Chris Kelley, 6-foot-3 linebacker Russell Holmes and 6-foot-6 tight end Ronnie Taylor.
 
That was basically the front line Huggins used when Akron lost by just six to the powerful Wolverines in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
 
That Michigan team was stacked with a starting five consisting of Antoine Joubert, Gary Grant, Butch Wade, Richard Rellford and Robert Henderson. Sitting on Michigan's bench that year were Roy Tarpley and Glen Rice.
 
"If I didn't have those three guys from the football team, we wouldn't have won anything," Huggins said.
 
Great Akron memories, for sure!
 
Tipoff for Friday night's charity exhibition game against the Zips is set for 7 p.m. There will be no cow sitting outside the WVU Coliseum, but fans coming to the game will be donating to the Norma Mae Huggins Cancer Research Endowment Fund.
 
Individual tickets are priced at $15 or $10, depending on seat location.
 
Andrew Caridi and Warren Baker will have the call on Big 12 Now on ESPN+. The Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield will provide radio coverage with Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs.