By John Johnston
The Cincinnati Enquirer

She'll be in her usual seat Saturday at Shoemaker Center, just behind the home team's bench. That's where June Huggins will watch the University of Cincinnati men's basketball team open its season with an exhibition game against Northern Kentucky University.

She'll cheer the Bearcats, but she won't draw attention to herself. That's never been the style of the wife of UC's hard-charging, hard-working, high-profile head coach, Bob Huggins.

While Mr. Huggins, 49, was building UC into a powerhouse basketball program during the past 13 years, Mrs. Huggins quietly was raising their two daughters, Jenna, 20, a UC sophomore, and Jacqueline, 17, a junior at Loveland High School. Mrs. Huggins, 48, also cares for the family's pets (two dogs, two cats, a rabbit, a parakeet and fish). She enjoys sewing and oil painting; several of her pieces are displayed in their home. She attends two Bible-study groups a week through her church, Grace Chapel in Mason.

She met Mr. Huggins when both were high school juniors. His family had moved to the small, eastern Ohio town of Gnadenhutten, and she lived on an 800-acre farm in nearby Port Washington. They began dating their senior year (1971-72) at Indian Valley South High School. They married in 1977.

Since 1989, when UC hired Mr. Huggins, they have lived in the same house in an upper-middle class subdivision of Clermont County's Miami Township. There's a basketball hoop in the driveway and a UC banner hangs outside. Inside the main living areas, there's little hint of Mr. Huggins' occupation. But then Mrs. Huggins leads the way to the Bearcat-themed lower level, decked out in UC wallpaper, window treatments, pillows, and memorabilia, including framed jerseys (Danny Fortson, Corie Blount) and newspapers from UC's Final Four year (1992).

In an interview last week, Mrs. Huggins talked about the heart attack her husband suffered six weeks ago; what's changed and what hasn't since then; and life with the UC coach.

Question: You don't do many interviews, I see.

Answer: "I just don't feel like I'm very good at it because I never know what to say."

Q: You're a beautician by trade. Do you cut Bob's hair?

A: "I don't know if I should admit to that. (She laughs.) He's got some bad hair, because he has no hair right here (she points above her temples). I've cut it for - let's see, we've been married for 25 years - probably 28 years. The first time was bad. I was still in school. He said, `You can do it.' I got it just a little bit short. He wasn't real happy, I don't think."

Q: Is he a romantic type?

A: "He can be, I guess. He forgets things. I'm still mad at him from this year because it was our 25th wedding anniversary, and he forgot. . . . See, all his buddies that always remind him about everything were out of town. He did bring me some perfume and a card for Sweetest Day."

Q: How are you two alike and different?

A: "I'm an early-morning person, and he's a late-night person. I like to get up at 6, and he likes to get up at 10 or 12 and stay up until 2 or 3."

Q: What have the weeks since the heart attack been like?

A: "It's been a little different because Bob's been around some. He's (usually) never around. He's doing really good. He's doing what the doctors say. He's exercising, eating a lot of chicken. He likes steaks, but he's only had it once since this happened. He's been off the cigars, as far as I know. I haven't smelled them, anyway. The doctor's been adamant about not wanting him smoking cigars. (Before the heart attack), we'd all been on him about smoking, but he didn't ever listen."

Q: Was the possibility of him not returning to coaching discussed?

A: "He never even thought about that. He was always going to be back. I don't think he could stand to miss a year. He can't even miss a practice. They wanted him to stay home from a couple of practices. He said, `What makes the difference if I sit at home or sit at practice?' "

Q: So what's changed?

A: (Chuckling) "No cigars, so far."

Q: Were you concerned he'd return to work too soon?

A: "Not really. He wanted to be there. I'd kind of liked to have him stay around (home) a little longer, ... but I knew as soon as he got out of the hospital he'd want to go back. ... As far as me saying, you need to slow down and not do something, no. He'll just say he's got to do it."

Q: Are you serving as nurse June?

A: "I remind him of a couple things, but he's doing good. Make sure he takes his pills; he's on a lot of pills right now."

Q: What do the two of you do together?

A: "Nothing anymore ... unless I watch game film. At night when he's home, he'll watch old game films. When they scrimmaged Saturday (Oct. 26), he brought the tape home and was watching it Saturday night to see what they didn't do right. I like to watch if it's our guys. But when he's watching (other) teams because we're going to play them, I can't get into that at all.

"He's never around to do anything. It's always sports, watching games or going to games. When we were dating and first married we used to go fishing, but he never gets a chance, anymore."

Q: What about dinner together?

A: "Not a lot. Since he's had his heart attack, though, he's been home for dinner more than I can remember in a long time."

Q: How many UC games do you attend?

A: "All the home games and some of the away games. All the good away games. Good ones are like Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Las Vegas. Good locations. We don't have any this year, other than New York."

Q: How excited do you get during games?

A: "Not as excited as him. I yell once in a while."

Q: At Breakfast with Bob, the meet-the-team event last month, the two of you strolled into the gym arm-in-arm. Whose idea was that?

A: "The AD (athletics director Bob Goin) asked if I would do it. I think he wanted me to walk to the middle of the gym floor (with Bob), but when we went by my seat, I (stopped) there. I don't like cameras and microphones."

Q: Fans have come to know Coach Huggins as excitable during games and subdued in interviews. What's he like at home?

A: He's the quieter, low-key kind. If he's around a bunch of guys, they'll talk basketball constantly.

Q: Over the years, there's been a lot of conjecture about how long he'll coach. Do the two of you discuss it?

A: "Sometimes he'll say he'd like to retire in five or six years. But I can't see him retiring, I think, until he would win a national championship . . . because I think that's his goal."

Q: How much does he give to this job?

A: "150 percent. We don't even really take a vacation. If we go somewhere together, it's always for a game or something. I go to Florida in July, but he's out recruiting."

Q: How much pressure is there in maintaining the success he's built?

A: "He puts pressure on himself. He has to win. Even in high school, our senior year, they went undefeated and won the state tournament. So he's always been like that. And I think he knows he's won here so much that people just expect it. So he thinks he has to keep up with it, too. He's just like that, though. He can't stand to lose. It just drives him crazy."

E-mail jjohnston@enquirer.com