Ron Higgins: “Are you that new sportswritin’ fella?”

Ron Higgins sure can spin a yarn, and he shares some side-splitting ones from his more than four decades of covering sports in the Deep South. Hear how Bear Bryant responded to Ron asking him to roll his Tide team off the field. Hang out with Steve Spurrier, Dale Brown and other characters who added spice to the gig. Hear about the wizardry of “Pistol “Pete Maravich, about Luc Longley’s strange request at the Olympics, and why Alvin Lee’s sneakers snapped a slump. Oh, and learn what a basketball-loving surgeon once ask Ron on the operating table moments before a certain procedure. Good lawd.

Higgins has worked at newspapers in four southern states while covering the SEC and national sporting events for 41 years. He has covered more than 50 bowl games, three Olympics, multiple Final Fours, the Super Bowl, NBA Finals, and Daytona 500. He’s the winner of 180 national, regional, and state writing awards – including being named writer of the year in both Tennessee and Louisiana multiple times by the National Sportswriters and Broadcasters. Ron is a member of the Tennessee Sportswriters Hall of Fame, and he served as president of the Football Writers Association of America in 2008.

Ron spent nearly 29 years at the Memphis Commercial Appeal (1984-2013) as lead college football writer and columnist focusing on the SEC. He’s also worked at the Clarion-Ledger in Mississippi (2018), the NOLA Media Group in New Orleans (2013-18), the Mobile Press Register in Alabama (1997-98), and The Advocate (1983-84) in his hometown of Baton Rouge, La., where he currently resides again. Since 2019, he’s been covering LSU sports as editor of Tiger Rag Magazine and columnist for TigerDetails.com. His father, Ace Higgins, was sports information director (1954-68) at LSU, where Ron earned his journalism degree after graduating in 1977 from Angelina College – where he played basketball – in Lufkin, Texas.