FRANCIS “JIGGER” HIGGINS (Old Timer, Class of 2009, Posthumous)

Under the management of Jigger Higgins and Rip Higgins (no relation) , the Warren town baseball team won three of the four Warren/Bristol  Little World Series played between 1921 and 1924.

During that time, with Jigger doing much of the recruiting for Warren, both squads made liberal use of major league and high minor league players; Warren fielded such stars as future National Baseball Hall of Famer Gabby Hartnett, pitcher Harry Harper of the Red Sox, Dartmouth’s Al Davidson (who resided in Barrington), and local  Warren heroes Chit Beauregard and future major leaguer Joe Morrissey.

In 1921 Warren fielded a team in Rhode Island’s highest amateur league, the Providence Amateur League, and Jigger served as manager.  The following year the local nine played an independent schedule, and Jigger and Rip were the team’s co-managers.

Jigger was the secretary of the Warren Twilight League in 1923.  He managed the league’s Red Sox team on more than one occasion.

In 1939 the Warren High School baseball team became the first Class C team to win a state championship in any sport.  Jigger returned home to Warren and served as the Toastmaster at the banquet honoring this Class C and State Championship Baseball nine.

And in 1961 Jigger was one of many old timers who honored Warren baseball history by participating in the dedication of the new Warren High baseball diamond at Veteran’s Memorial Field on Child Street.

(In the period 1915-1920 Jigger was quite a bowler, more than once recording a high single and once playing on a league runner-up team.)