TOM HIGGINS - 08/09/1937 - 07/31/2018
Tom Higgins was raised in the mountain community of Burnsville, North Carolina. This future award-winning journalist became a two-sport standout in baseball and basketball. Higgins covered his first NASCAR Cup event on July 1, 1956 at the half-mile dirt Asheville-Weaverville Speedway tucked into the same mountains of North Carolina where he'd grown up. He was a young sportswriter for the Asheville Times, directed into the profession by his basketball coach at Brevard College. He was assigned by his editors to cover the local race, and at the time he wasn't happy about having to do it. As he likes to say, "The first race I ever attended, I covered." That day he sought a vantage point that would help him see over the flying dust and the crowd of 8,000. He climbed into a rickety old tower, where he found two men hiding out, helmets tucked under their arms and passing a fifth of Jim Beam back and forth. It was Curtis Turner and Joe Weatherly. "They didn't have rides for the race, but they didn't know that yet. They were still hoping to run it. That didn't keep them from drinking straight out of that bottle. I thought to myself, 'This here is a hairy-chested sport. I like these people.'" Two years later, Higgins was sent to Darlington to cover the Southern 500. He was a little concerned when a Boy Scout assigned to watch the entrance to the
open-air press box over Turn 1 handed him a pair of goggles. That concern grew into downright terror when the green flag dropped and the field of 48 cars roared directly toward his seat, which hung just a few feet over the first-turn guardrail. "Asphalt dust and sand and oil came blowing into the press box all over me. The only thing separating us from the cars was a net of rusty old chicken wire. We had cars flipping over that guardrail, riding up on top of it, and finally Eddie Pagan went completely through it, leaving a 150-foot hole in the fence." They kept on racing. And for the next four decades, Higgins kept on writing. He eventually ended up with The Charlotte Observer with the dual beats of the outdoors and stock car racing. By 1976 he was on the road year-round, the first full-time NASCAR beat writer. "Tom was the voice of the sport when it came to the written word," Ned Jarrett said on Saturday night. "My driving career goes all the way back to 1953. When I started winning races a few years later, you would go to Victory Lane and then go to talk to the media -- we called it the press back then. It would be the track public-address announcer and Tom Higgins. That was usually it." Higgins was on the road during an era when those covering the sport were every bit as much a part of the traveling family as the racers and mechanics. He went fishing with Tiny Lund and Buddy Baker. He went hunting with Dale Earnhardt and Harry Gant. And he had drinks with everyone in between. But he also earned a reputation as the guy who seemed to get the story first. "That's a statement to the kind of man he is," Gant said at the dinner. "We trusted him to handle our business and our lives the right way. He helped so many of our careers." In 1975, Higgins was the only reporter to show up at Charlotte Motor Speedway to cover Earnhardt's first real Cup Series test session. The kid who would eventually become The Intimidator refused to answer Higgins' questions until he realized that Tom had covered his father, particularly some of Ralph's most infamous moments on the short tracks around Asheville. In 1984, it was Higgins who typed out one of the greatest lines in the history of motorsports journalism. Richard Petty, a local politician in his hometown of Randleman, N.C., won his 200th race with Ronald Reagan in attendance. In 1993, it was Higgins who sat in an airport bar and pleaded with Neil Bonnett not to come out of retirement. "You don't understand," Bonnett said to his old friend. "Driving a race car is better than any sex you've ever had." Higgins replied, "Either you can teach me a lot about driving a race car or I can teach you a helluva lot about making love." They hugged and said goodbye. The following February, Bonnett died at Daytona. He was the sport's greatest storyteller. And his "Scuffs" historical blog is still a must-read for any NASCAR fan. Higgins worked for The Charlotte Observer for 34 years before choosing to retire way back in 1997. After his retirement, he continued to write about his most interesting and historical experiences as NASCAR’s iconic reporter and journalist. Many of NASCAR’s biggest names and most-beloved drivers have incredible stories they shared with Higgins – both as life experiences and ones they told him as part of his stunning journalism career. During his run at The Observer, Higgins was known for covering more than 40 races per season and providing some of the highest-quality content that helped NASCAR grow as a sport – engaging local readers on a level not many outlets could. For his almost four-decade run as one of NASCAR’s top reporters, Higgins became acquaintances and friends with almost every single star that hit the track. His proudest moment, he said, is that he made a point of treating everyone fairly. In 2015, Higgins was the recipient of NASCAR’s Squier-Hall Award for Media Excellence and was honored during the Hall Of Fame induction ceremony. He also was featured in an impressive exhibit at the Hall of Fame in Charlotte. He was credited with the honor of being the first writer to cover every single race on the NASCAR schedule and became an ever-present figure that even fans today recognize – either by his unmistakable voice or his work as a top-tier journalist. Higgins suffered a stroke in August 2017, just four days after his 80th birthday and faced a significant health battle in the months that followed. Close friend and fellow journalist, Steve Waid shared updates with others along the way – asking for prayers and rallying support. We will never forget the amazing coverage that Tom Higgins provided of NASCAR and his legacy will live on in his massive body of work that includes a seemingly endless number of articles and his work as a published author.