Richard David Huckabay, Sr (November 25, 1945 – March 10, 2006) was an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach, best known for his years as head coach at

Marshall University Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. The university is currently composed of nine colleges: L ...

. Huckabay was born in Chicago but later moved with his family to

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

where he played high school baseball and basketball. He attended

Louisiana Tech University Louisiana Tech University (Louisiana Tech, La. Tech, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Ruston, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System and classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activ ...

and played baseball. After graduating, he became a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

basketball coach in that state. He then became an

assistant coach A sports coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''coach'' is that of a Coach (carriage), horse-drawn carriage, deriving ultima ...

at the

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

under

Dale Brown Dale Brown (born 2 November 1956) is an American writer and aviator known for aviation techno-thriller novels. At least thirteen of his novels have been ''New York Times'' Best Sellers. Early life Brown was born in Buffalo, New York, and w ...

. In 1983 he was hired at Marshall, where he compiled a 129–59 record, including three appearances in the NCAA tournament and one in the NIT before resigning in 1989 amid an investigation into recruiting. Following Huckabay's resignation and a

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

, he chose not to seek another college job, but remained in the

Huntington, West Virginia Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Cabell County, and the largest city in the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as the Tri-State Area. A h ...

area where he held several high school coaching jobs in the city's Ohio suburbs, in order to remain near his two sons. After his sons reached adulthood, he returned to Louisiana where he was coaching high school basketball when diagnosed with terminal

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. Huckabay was inducted posthumously into the Marshall University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006

Head coaching record

The NCAA vacated Marshall's loss in the NCAA Tournament.Marshall University Infractions Report
. ncaa.org. March 11, 2018.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Huckabay, Rick 1945 births 2006 deaths Baseball players from Louisiana Basketball coaches from Louisiana High school basketball coaches in Louisiana High school basketball coaches in Ohio Louisiana Tech Bulldogs baseball players LSU Tigers men's basketball coaches Marshall Thundering Herd men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Chicago