Alex Higgins
Alexander Gordon "Alex" Higgins (18 March 1949 – 24 July 2010), also known by his nickname of Hurricane Higgins, was a Northern Irish professional snooker player who was twice World Champion and twice runner-up. Higgins earned the nickname The Hurricane because of his speed of play. Higgins was also a former World Doubles champion with Jimmy White and won the World Cup three times with the All Ireland team. He also came to be known as the People's Champion because of his popularity.
Higgins is often credited to have brought the game of snooker to a wider audience and contributing to its peak in popularity in the eighties.
Higgins had a reputation as an unpredictable and difficult character. He was a heavy smoker, struggled with drinking and gambling, and admitted to using cocaine and marijuana. Diagnosed with throat cancer in 1998, Higgins was found dead in his Belfast home on 24 July 2010.
Read more about Alex Higgins: Playing Style, Outside Snooker, Illness and Death, Legacy, Performance Timeline
Famous quotes containing the words alex and/or higgins:
“My smiling child
Named for a noble ancestor
Great hunter or warrior
You will be one day.
Which will give your papa pride
But always I will remember you thus.”
—African Lullaby. As quoted in Roots, by Alex Haley (1976)
“Politics is a choice of enemas. You’re gonna get it up the ass, no matter what you do.”
—George V. Higgins (b. 1939)