Sport's first beat writer earns Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence
As NASCAR Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer Brett Jewkes introduced Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence winner Tom Higgins, he said NASCAR's first beat writer to cover every race in a season joined the sport's Mount Rushmore of media, broadcasters Ken Squier, Barney Hall and Chris Economaki, the first three recipients of the honor.
When Higgins came to the podium, he humbly declared Hall and Squier were the Mount Everest of media in NASCAR and didn't know how this son of the Blue Ridge Mountains could be mentioned in the same breath.
The 33-year veteran of the Charlotte Observer earned a standing ovation at the NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Dinner at the Charlotte Convention Center.
"That's the first time that's ever happened," Higgins cracked. "Usually when people are standing and facing me like that they have balled fists."
Affectionately known as "Pappy," Higgins began his career as a rookie reporter out of Brevard College at the Canton (North Carolina) Enterprise and covered racing for the first time at another Tarheel State publication, the Asheville Times, before joining the Observer in 1964.
Saturday would have marked the 51st anniversary of his start date at the newspaper. He credited sports editor Whitey Kelley with waiving the requirement of a four-year college degree.
"We're not hiring a rocket scientist. We're hiring a hunting, fishing and outdoors writer," Kelley told his colleagues. "His father's a game warden, for God's sake!"
Higgins' NASCAR coverage earned him the International Motorsports Hall of Fame's Henry T. McLemore Award for lifetime achievement in motorsports journalism in 1980, the year he began covering every NASCAR race in 1980. He stayed on the beat until his retirement in 1997, receiving NASCAR's Bill France Award of Excellence the year before.
Friday night's honor ranked among the top dozen moments in Higgins' life. His hiring at the Observer was another such milestone. The births of his children and grandchildren and meeting the love of his life in 1990 accounted for the other moments.
Fittingly, Higgins was honored at the dinner alongside the five members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2015 -- Bill Elliott, Fred Lorenzen, Wendell Scott, Joe Weatherly and Rex White, all of whom he covered.
Even more appropriate was the second standing ovation of Higgins' life and the night. This time, his present-day peers broke the cardinal rule of no cheering in the media center by honoring a man who served as a mentor to many.