Codes of Honour: Mick Higgins
17:33, 06 Nov 2009
Shane Stapleton
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Every great team of a generation has its leader: Clare hurling had Anthony Daly; Down footballers had Sean O’Neill; and Cavan football in the 1940s and ’50s had Mick Higgins. Born in New York, reared in Mayo, a minor for Kildare, he became a hero for the Breffni County.
Cavan have won the All Ireland title five times – 1933, ’35, ’47, ’48, ’52 – and Higgins was involved in each of the last three. He remains the county’s most recent All Ireland-winning captain.
Kerry half-back Jackie Lyne said of Higgins: “Mick was the greatest centre half-forward I ever faced, bar none.” And the Kerryman should know, he played against Higgins in one of the most famous All Ireland finals ever: 1947 at the Polo Grounds in New York.
Held on the centenary year of the potato famine, it is the only senior All Ireland final that has ever been held outside Ireland, and it may well be the only final to ever hold that distinction. Cavan won it: 2-11 to 2-07.
But for Higgins, what he remembers best is the semi-final clash with Roscommon, and the huge carrot of a cross-Atlantic trip beckoning for the winners. As it did for the victors of the other semi between Meath and Kerry.
He said in an interview: “We all knew what was at stake and the idea of travelling across to America was very appealing but we tried not to take our minds off the game.
“We always felt it was going to be difficult to beat Roscommon and that was the way it worked out. Overall I’d say our performance against Roscommon in Croke Park was the best one we put in that year. We were two evenly-matched teams and it was a close contest.
“They went into the game as favourites because they had beaten us the year before when they had much the same team that won the All Irelands in ’43 and ’44. They had won the All Ireland minor too in 1942 so they had a lot of very good footballers at their disposal around the mid-40s.”
Cavan beat Roscommon 2-04 to 0-6, which was quite a coup for the Breffni boys. “Roscommon were a highly-rated team back then and beating them gave us a lot of confidence. We were playing good football in the run-up to the match but they had by far the better start in the game though.
“At one stage in the first half they were well in front after we had a bad start. I remember that we only had two attacks in the early stages of the first half and two points is all we got by half-time.”
So it would be Higgins’ Cavan and Kerry in the final at the Polo Grounds. Kerry took a six-day sea journey while the Cavan team decided to go by air. “Unfortunately with delays and one thing and another it took us 27 hours to get there whereas nowadays you’d do it in seven hours,” said Higgins.
“It was the first time I’d been on a plane and I wouldn’t say I was afraid but you’d be inclined to be a bit nervous all the same.”
Kerry, wearing white, tipped caps to shield themselves from the sun, took an early lead but a combination of tactical switches – and presumably the toll of the exhausting sea-journey on the Kingdom County – allowed Cavan drag themselves back into the game.
“It was a very hot day in New York for the final and it got even more roasting as the day went on. The football was fast too and you could feel the energy being sapped from you,” added Higgins. “We got all the praise after we won the match but a lot of credit must go to the management because they helped turn things around.”
“It was a great experience but, funnily, the Polo Grounds hadn’t nearly the atmosphere of Croke Park even though there was around 35,000 people at the game. But who knows, maybe we wouldn’t have won the Sam Maguire if the final had been played in Croke Park.”
Higgins – a title-winner in the city of his birth – top-scored for Cavan on the day, with 1-2, and was dubbed the ‘Babe Ruth’ of Gaelic football by Arthur Daly of the New York Times. Cavan retained the title in ’48, against the county that Higgins grew up in: Mayo. In a close game, Cavan were one point ahead with seconds remaining when Mayo got a scoreable free. Higgins plucked the attempt out from over the crossbar and soloed it away until the referee called for time.
Afterwards, Mayo defender Sean Flanagan said: “The secret of that great Cavan team was their ability to create scores for one another. The main plank in their success was due to Mick Higgins and Tony Tighe. We never got to grips with them.”
Nor did Meath when Higgins also put in a match-winning display in the 1952 final, which went to a replay. In the history of the GAA, only once have brothers faced off against each other in an All Ireland final. It was in 1952. Brothers Liam, Des and Brendan Maguire all played in the game. Liam and Des played with Cavan while Brendan wore the colours of Meath. The brothers met in the centre of the field and shook hands before the start for the game. Cavan won by nine points but seven came from the boot of their centre-forward.
Higgins, the winner of seven Ulster championships and three All Ireland medals with Cavan, was presented with an All Time All Star award in 1987, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame two years later.
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