• JOIN THE SECNATION   Register / Login
    • Digital Network
  • SECSPORTS
  •  
  • SECVIDEO
  •  
  • SECNATION
  •  
  • SECMOBILE
  •  
  • SECSTORE
  •  
  • SECU
  •  
  • SECOnDemand
  •  
  • SECNetwork
  •  
    •  

    • SEC Traditions: Questions, Questions

      Bill Hancock didn’t realize he was such a popular guy. It was lunchtime last week at the Sandestin Beach Hilton during the annual SEC spring business meetings when Hancock found himself surrounded by a growing crowd of reporters. They all wanted to know the same thing from Hancock, executive director of the new College Football Playoff coming in the 2014 season.
      Full Story  

    • Wuerffel’s The Class Of The ’13 HOF Class

      News reached Danny Wuerffel a couple of weeks ago that he had been voted into the College Football Hall of Fame. It could have been easy for Danny to take it in stride, almost expect the honor. After all, the former University of Florida quarterback and 1996 Heisman Trophy winner who led the Gators to their first national championship that season, is regarded as one of the best players in SEC history.
      Full Story  

    • SEC Traditions: The History Of The SEC On TV

      The ballroom at the Atlanta Hyatt Regency was transformed last Thursday into a Who’s Who gathering of 32 SEC coaches in eight sports that had combined for a vault full of national championships. The occasion was the joint announcement by ESPN and the SEC that August 2014 is the launch date for the new ESPN-operated SEC Network.
      Full Story  

    • Holloway Trades Sneakers For Cleats

      Murphy Holloway was feeling good a few weeks ago. The Ole Miss senior basketball star had just played in the Portsmouth Invitational, a college career showcase for NBA scouts.
      Full Story  

    • SEC Traditions: What Used To Be A Phone Call

      If you’ve never been to an NFL draft in New York City at Radio City Music Hall, which starts a three-day run Thursday night, then put it on your sports bucket list. It’s definitely a show, “like Hollywood,” LSU football coach Les Miles said. But it wasn’t always this way, which is why I called Archie Manning, to give me perspective as he almost always does.
      Full Story  
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 12
  • 2/27/2013
    SEC Traditions: Same Name, Same Game For E.T. Times Two
    Elston Turner, Sr., won’t be front and center in Tad Smith Coliseum tonight when Texas A&M plays at Ole Miss. But the former first-team All-SEC honoree for the Rebels, the school’s fifth all-time leading scorer, will be there in spirit. . .and in namesake, with a high-arching sweet jumper.  Full Story
  • 2/18/2013
    SEC Traditions: The Wiz Took Care Of Biz
    Tony White went from being a recruiting afterthought, a fallback plan because Tennessee had failed to sign a guard it originally wanted, to twice leading the SEC in scoring. Even more remarkable is that Tony might still be regarded as one of the least physically imposing league scoring leaders, a lithe 6-2, 170-pound wisp that looked as if he never darkened the door of a weight room. It was almost as if he scored by magic, which is why he was given the nickname “The Wiz” (short for Wizard).”   Full Story
  • 2/12/2013
    SEC Traditions: Blueblood Adventures
    Often when I write these SEC Traditions stories, there’s a subject or a plan in mind. And there are other times when I zig one way, and then zag in a different direction. Cory Brandt forced me to zag this week. He reminded this old sportswriter, trained in the journalistic ethics of being fair and balanced, what it feels like to have the passion and undying loyalty of a true fan. (Photo by Nikki Boertman, Memphis Commercial Appeal)   Full Story
  • 2/5/2013
    SEC Traditions: Still A Fresh Prince
    When pro team after pro team in any sport pass on drafting someone who eventually has long and successful career, I wonder about those in the front office that chose unwisely. For example, there were the 18 teams picking the first 22 players in the 2002 NBA draft. Here we are, 10½ seasons later, 15 of those draft choices either are retired, not playing in the NBA or never played in the league. Now let’s talk about the 23rd player taken in the ‘ 02 NBA draft, former Kentucky forward Tayshaun Prince who was selected by the Detroit Pistons.   Full Story
  • 1/28/2013
    SEC Traditions: Never An Average Joe
    No matter his NBA locale, whether he’s worn the Irish green of the Boston Celtics, the bright purple and orange of the Phoenix Suns, the cornea-searing red of the Atlanta Hawks and now the simple black and white of the Brooklyn Nets, Joe Johnson has never forgotten he’s an Arkansas Razorback.   Full Story
  • 1/18/2013
    SEC Traditions: The Redhead Is On Red Alert
    Hey, in the SEC’s 2003 six-player NBA draft class, who had the pasty redheaded big white kid from Florida to have the most notable pro career? If you would have told me that guy, former Gators’ forward Matt Bonner, would still be the NBA after all this time, have a championship ring and become one of the best three-point shooters in NBA history, I would have pulled you to the side of the road and ask you to hop on one leg while touching your nose and then have you walk a straight line.   Full Story
  • 1/9/2013
    If Bear Walked On Water, Saban Is Dancing
    Even before Nick Saban coached Alabama to its third national championship in the last four years and his fourth overall in Monday night’s 42-14 beatdown of Notre Dame in the BCS national championship game, the question was being asked. As it was put forth in Sunday’s press conference to Saban by a reporter: “I've heard people say that if Alabama wins this game, that Nick Saban is in the same conversation as Coach Bryant.”  Full Story
  • 1/4/2013
    SEC Traditions: A Man Of Crimson Cloth
    It’s doubtful that any group wants Alabama to beat Notre Dame in the Jan. 7 BCS National Championship Game worse than the 1976 Crimson Tide football senior class. They went 0-3 vs. the Fighting Irish, losing a trio of games by a combined six points. In 1973 and 1974, Alabama won its first 11 games of each season, only to be edged by Notre Dame 24-23 in the Sugar Bowl and 13-11 in the Orange Bowl.   Full Story
  • 12/7/2012
    How Does SEC Football Get More Fabulous Every Season?
    The Commish – that’s what I call SEC commissioner Mike Slive – stood on the confetti-covered Georgia Dome field near the 50-yard line – last Saturday night. He was surveying the post-league championship game scene when we spotted each other.  Full Story
  • 11/30/2012
    Transfer Worked Wonders for Donnelly
    The premise, more than two decades later, is still so remarkable than even Chris Donnelly can’t tell the entire story to strangers.  Full Story


    • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 12


     
     

    Ron Higgins Bio

    •  Ron Higgins of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis has covered the SEC for more than 30 years.
       
    •  He’s a 1979 graduate of LSU and son of former LSU sports information director Ace Higgins.

    •  He is a past president of the Football Writers Association of America and an eight-time honoree as the Tennessee Sports Writers Association Writer of the Year.

    •  Working for The Commercial Appeal, Tiger Rag Magazine, the Shreveport Times, the Shreveport Journal, the Morning Advocate in Baton Rouge and the Mobile Register, he has won more than 150 national, regional and state writing awards. He has also written and co-written two books.
         
    •  Higgins is married to the former Paige Blanchard, also an LSU graduate, and has two sons, Carl, a Southeastern Louisiana University graduate who is serving in the military, and Jack, a high school student.

     
     
     


    © 2013 SEC and XOS Digital. All rights reserved worldwide.