ROGER HIGGINS (Athlete, Charter Class of 1998)

Roger Higgins, with 215 regular season strikeouts, still holds the record in the Rhode Island Interscholastic Baseball League.

During the period of 1943 to 1945 Roger threw four no-hitters and three one-hitters, with two of the hits coming with two outs in the ninth inning.  He helped lead Warren High School to the Class C Eastern Championship in 1944 and the Class C and State Baseball Championship in 1945.  For his efforts he was named All Class C and All State in both 1944 and 1945.

In nineteen 1945 games he pitched two no-hitters, one one-hitter, and nine shutouts, and struck out 244 batters (215 in the regular season).  And, by the way, he was one of the team’s leading hitters, carving out three or more hits against Barrington, Coventry, North Providence, and Sacred Heart.

Roger’s best offerings were caught by two fellow All Staters and members of the Hall of Fame, Ed Polak and Harpo Tavares.

In his senior year he was elected the captain of Warren High’s baseball, basketball, and football teams and was the school’s Journal-Bulletin Honor Roll Boy nominee in 1945.

He signed with the Boston Red Sox and pitched professional baseball for thirteen years, reaching as high as Louisville in the AAA American Association.  During his minor league career he won more than 150 games.

Roger compiled a 4-1 record in the Warren versus Bristol Baseball Little World Series from 1946 to the final year of 1949.  In the first of these years Senator Theodore Francis Green’s administrative assistant Rip Higgins (no relation) arranged for him to receive special leave from the United State Army, and he came home to pitch the deciding game in Warren’s three games to two victory.

He was a member of the Warren Twilight Baseball League 1947 Champions Knights of Columbus and the 1948 Standard Pharmacy basketball team that won the Bristol YMCA Gold Medal Tournament.

At the end of his minor league career Roger married, settled in North Dakota, and became a respected radio and television sportscaster.  He is a member of the North Dakota Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame, having been honored as the state’s Sportscaster of the Year in 1971 and 1975.  Bismarck’s University of Mary also honored him with membership in their Hall of Fame in recognition of his having served as the voice of their athletic teams in the 1990s.