BREAKING NEWS: Fake Bob Huggins Announces His Retirement from #WVUTwitter

Later this week, Real Bob Huggins will finally be enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. It’s a fitting honor for one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time. Therefore, I think it’s especially fitting that the final tweets of this account are retweets congratulating Real Bob Huggins which is why this week will be my last week tweeting as Fake Bob Huggins.

For nearly 11 years, you’ve given me a seat at the WVU sports conversation table as we’ve engaged in everything from the serious, to the outright absurd. While I won’t miss feeling the need to be so online at all times, or ignoring my family on game days, or being an insufferable person to watch a game with, I will absolutely miss the community. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to make so many friendships and memories as a result of this account and while I know I’m leaving more of those on the table, and knowing there’s no real good time to step away, I think it’s only appropriate I end and pay tribute as this account’s muse achieves his highest honor.

Now, if you’ll allow me a couple closing thoughts, I’ve finally got more than 280 characters.

I hope every Mountaineer fan knows how fortunate we are to have this school, this state, these teams, and this community of fans. As the college sports landscape—and for that matter, the world—changes, let’s closely guard our identity and reputation. Ignorant people will continue to make the same two jokes about us, but let’s not give our critics any factual ammunition to lob our way. As fans, we wield more power in that than you may think. The expectations we have for our program, coaches, and players (both on and off the field) show the world our values. The way in which we interact with both our players and opposing players and fans shows the world our true character.

To all the people who’ve supported and engaged with this account over the last decade, thank you for the replies, the retweets, and the banter. All of you were passionate, most of you were kind, and some of you have been incredibly generous. Together, we raised more than $1,500 for the Norma Mae Huggins Fund at the WVU Cancer Institute in 2019. Together with Final Fourcast, we raised more than $3,100 to support Austin, TX residents impacted by the snow and power outages in 2021.

I’ve had the honor and privilege to interact with a lot of people from the team, the athletic department, as well as both local and national media, and everyone has been incredibly kind and fun to work with. So many to thank, but specifically want to call out Matt W., Tony, Mike, Chris, Matt K., Dave, Nick, Dan, Josh, Adam: thank you all!

Lastly, I want to publicly thank Real Bob Huggins and the entire Huggins family. With honestly zero reason to even give me the time of day, Real Bob has never been anything but gracious and kind to me, and I think despite being one of the greatest active basketball coaches and not really having time or desire to be online, he’s actually been an appreciator of the account and gets it. The period of time I got to spend with him was something I’ll never forget as long as I live. The people who say not to meet your heroes so you’re not disappointed have obviously never met Real Bob Huggins. He’s a Hall of Fame coach and a Hall of Fame human being.

So, that’s it. At the end of this week, the @FakeBobHuggins account will go dormant, and I’ll go back to using my real Twitter account—which has mainly acted as my burner for the past 8ish years. I hope that I’ve left WVU Twitter better than when I found it, and I hope that the next time you boo Doug Sirmons, or see someone talk about “Bill Self’s best coaching job ever”, or order a mild beef burrito from Wings Olé, or drink too much after a WVU win/loss, that you think of me.

Tell ‘em Fake Bob sent ya.