Fish Fry Sees Record Turnout & Fundraising Effort
The Bob Huggins Fish Fry, held on Jan. 27, recorded the annual event's first sell-out. In its 11th iteration, the fundraiser featured Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame member Charles Barkley, musical guests The Davisson Brothers Band and Lords of Lester, and an estimated 2,700 attendees.
The event, presented by Little General Stores, benefitted two causes near and dear to Huggins' heart: the WVU Cancer Institute's Norma Mae Huggins Cancer Research Endowment Fund and the Remember the Miners Flagship Scholars Program.
“To be able to share the night with 2,700 people who share the same passion and fight that I do in supporting these two great causes is amazing,” Huggins said. “It shows the strength of our state and its people. Charles’ willingness to join us really put things over the top, and I can’t thank him enough. It was a really special night.”
Huggins has been raising funds for his late mother's endowment fund since 2003. The Fish Fry alone has garnered more than $20 million toward the cause, and Huggins is looking at renderings to break ground on a new cancer research-specific building in the future.
“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 bedside as she died of cancer, it hits you pretty hard.
“To have that here in Morgantown, to have that here in our state, would be, I think, one of the greatest things that ever happened in our state," he continued. "There’s certainly a lot of people who deserve a lot of credit for trying to push this thing forward. As we all know, there’s a whole lot of road blocks, and people have been absolutely wonderful.”
In addition to the Cancer Research Endowment Fund, the latter program is a non-profit public awareness campaign aimed at sharing the stories of America's coal miners. The Remember the Miners Scholars Program supports students at WVU's Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. The Fish Fry has raised more than $300,000 in scholarship and general support for the Department of Mining and Industrial Extension.
In 2023, the Bob Huggins Fish Fry brought in just shy of Huggins' projected $2 million, at $1.8 million raised through the WVU Foundation. 2022 and post-COVID 2021 brought in a ballpark $2.5 million each.
The event is made possible by dozens of sponsors, including top-level partnerships like Little General Stores, Kenneth Mason, WVU Medicine, Applied Construction Solutions, the Assaley Feck Harold Group at Morgan Stanley, Guard Unit LLC, the Hayhurst Family, Ike and Betty Sue Morris, and Joe and Lisa Subrick.
To support the Norma Mae Huggins Endowment and/or the WVU Cancer Institute, visit https://cancer.wvumedicine.org/giving for more information.
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