Mick Higgins (22 August 1922 – 28 January 2010) was an Irish

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by ki ...

er who played at senior level for the Cavan county team, winning three All-Ireland medals during his career. In later years he was a successful coach. His first All-Ireland Senior Football medal came as a member of the team that won the

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) ( ga, Craobh Shinsir Peile na hÉireann) is the premier competition in Gaelic football. An annual tournament organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), it is contested by the county ...

final played at the

Polo Grounds The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 through 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built fo ...

in New York City, United States in 1947. Cavan retained that title the following year and won it again in 1952 when Higgins was captain of the team. Higgins also won the

Ulster Senior Football Championship The Ulster Senior Football Championship is an inter-county competition for Gaelic football teams in the province of Ulster. It is organised by the Ulster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and begins in early May. The final is us ...

with Cavan on seven occasions, as well as both the

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and

Railway Cup The GAA Interprovincial Championship ( ga, An Corn Idir-Chúigeach) or Railway Cup (''Corn an Iarnróid'') is the name of two annual Gaelic football and hurling competitions held between the provinces of Ireland. The Connacht, Leinster, Munster ...

on two occasions each. Higgins won the Cavan Senior Football Championship with Mountnugent GAA in 1946, he played with famous players such as Tony Tighe, Peter Donohue and Connie Kelly. Upon his death in 2010 Higgins was said by the ''

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper and online publication which is owned by Independent News & Media (INM), a subsidiary of Mediahuis. The newspaper version often includes glossy magazines. Traditionally a broadsheet n ...

''s

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to have been "widely regarded as one of the greatest talents ever to emerge from Cavan". The ''

Longford Leader The ''Longford Leader'' is a weekly newspaper, which has published in Longford, Ireland since 1897. History The Longford Leader was founded, as ''The Longford Leader and Roscommon, Leitrim and Westmeath News'', as a local newspaper with a Nati ...

''s Eugene McGee described him as "a man who became a GAA superstar of his generation, despite limited coverage of games he played". Seán Moran of ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'' described him as "one of the great football figures of the last century".

Early and personal life

Higgins was born in New York. At the age of five he moved to Kilnaleck,

County Cavan County Cavan ( ; gle, Contae an Chabháin) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is part of the Border Region. It is named after the town of Cavan and is based on the historic Gaelic territory of East Breffny (''Bréifn ...

, birthplace of his mother. He served in the Garda Síochána, eventually being promoted to the rank of sergeant. He married his wife Margaret and with her had four children, son John and daughters Terry, Jean and Brenda, all five of whom outlived him. Amongst his other interests were

greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurgen ...

racing and he trained the dogs.

Career

Playing career

In 1943, Higgins debuted in the

in a game against

Monaghan Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Ireland. It also provides the name of its civil parish and barony. The population of the town as of the 2016 census was 7,678. The town is on the N2 road from Dublin to Derry and Letterken ...

. Cavan won the tournament that year. In 1947 he flew for 30 hours with the Cavan team to New York to play in that year's All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final, held abroad on that occasion to mark the centenary of the Great Famine and celebrate the Irish who emigrated at this time. Cavan beat

Kerry Kerry or Kerri may refer to: * Kerry (name), a given name and surname of Gaelic origin (including a list of people with the name) Places * Kerry, Queensland, Australia * County Kerry, Ireland ** Kerry Airport, an international airport in County ...

, giving Higgins his first All-Ireland medal. To celebrate the team embarked on a voyage on the

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being greeted by crowds of people in

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, London and

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

. Cavan beat

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in the 1948 final to retain the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship but lost to

Meath Meath may refer to: General * County Meath, Republic of Ireland **Kingdom of Meath, medieval precursor of the county ** List of kings of Meath ** Meath GAA, including the intercounty football and hurling teams ** Diocese of Meath, in the Roman Cath ...

in the 1949 final to miss out on three consecutive titles. However, Higgins went on to win his third All-Ireland medal with Cavan in 1952.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player Higgins entered coaching. He won the Ulster Senior Football Championship on three occasions with Cavan and also led them to their most recent appearance in any All-Ireland final in 1959 when they were defeated by

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

in that year's All-Ireland Minor Football Championship final. During the 1960s Higgins was the coach of the Longford county team when it won the National Football League (1966) and its first (and at the time of his death only)

Leinster Senior Football Championship The Leinster Senior Football Championship, known simply as the Leinster Championship and shortened to Leinster SFC, is an annual inter-county Gaelic football competition organised by the Leinster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (G ...

(1968). He also led them to an

O'Byrne Cup The Bord na Móna O'Byrne Cup is a Gaelic football competition organised by the Leinster GAA and first staged in 1954. The competition is named after Matt Byrne, a former Wicklow GAA club and county officer. By virtue of a quirk in translation, ...

title in 1965. He also assisted the Donegal county team with its first Ulster Senior Football Championship win (1972).

Later years and death

In recognition of his skills and long-running contribution to the sport, Higgins was awarded the 1987 All-Time All Star Award as no

GAA All Stars Awards The Gaelic Athletic Association-Gaelic Players' Association All Stars Awards (often known simply as the All Stars) are awarded annually to the best player in each of the 15 playing positions in Gaelic football and hurling. Additionally, one playe ...

were being issued at the time of his playing career. In 1989 he was entered into the Texaco Hall of Fame. In November 2009, the ''Irish Independent'' selected him as the 36th best player in the newspaper's all-time list of 125 players. He was interviewed at his

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home in 2002. In an interview shortly before his death Higgins was asked what his legacy would be. He replied: Higgins died at the age of 87 in January 2010. His funeral and burial took place on 30 January 2010. At his death Cavan had not featured in an All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final since Higgins's last win in 1952. His death meant that Owen Roe McGovern, who died in 2011, was the last survivor from Cavan All-Ireland winning teams of 1947 and '48. In his tribute

Christy Cooney Christy Cooney ( Irish: Críostóir Ó Cuana, born 1952 in Youghal, County Cork, Ireland) is a Gaelic games administrator, who served as the 36th president of the Gaelic Athletic Association. He was elected president at the annual GAA Congress o ...

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of the

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional ...

, said Higgins was "a man who made an immense and lasting contribution to Gaelic games".

References