Kildare v Mayo 1935

[Aaron Boone]

Heard somewhere that Cavan will be hard bet in the final.

[armaghniac]

If you heard about Cavan being in a final then it was definitely in black and white days!

[Donnellys Hollow]

This was the penultimate match that the celebrated Kildare centre back Jack Higgins played in. He retired after the 1935 All Ireland. Matthew Hussey published a book about Jack Higgins' life a few years ago. It was available online but I cannot seem to locate it now. Suffice to say what passed for football back then was nothing short of barbarism.

Weeshie Fogarty provides a good synopsis of the book in this article:

A Legendary Lilywhite - Jack Higgins of Kildare
January 10th, 2012
by Weeshie Fogarty

An e-mail last February from a friend in Kildare Matthew Hussey alerted me to the fact that he had began the task of writing the life story of one of the greatest centre backs Gaelic football had ever seen. From 1926  to 1935 Jack Higgins  was the brightest star in Leinster football and was on the 1927-28 Kildare teams which won All Ireland honors. His name is synonymous with the great Kerry/Kildare clashes of the era, games we are told added massive to the popularity of the association. Jack was captain of the Lily Whites when they lost to Kerry the final of1929. He was on the Leinster Railway Cup teams from 1927 to 1934. He burst on the scene in the historic drawn game against Kerry in 1926. He served his county from 1925 to 1935, played in six All Ireland finals and won seven Leinster medals.

Titled "A Legendary Lilywhite - Jack Higgins of Kildare" Matthew has done a superb job of work in researching and documenting the magnificent career of this outstanding footballer. I was able to help the author in a very tiny way when I send him (on loan) that superb publication by the legendary Kerryman journalist Paddy Foley, "Kerrys Football Story" published in 1945. All the Kerry/ Kildare clashes are recounted here in great detail. A book that really should be re-published before long.

While the Kildare book of two hundred and fifty seven pages covers all aspects of Jacks career one chapter that of his retirement from football and death at the early age of only fifty three absolutely stunned me. The accounts of his injuries and treatment from opponents is shocking to read and I have never read in any other GAA publication such blatant and savage treatment handed out to any individual on the field of play. But of course it was happening back then and indeed still does to a lesser degree to day.

The author recounts with the help of match reports of the time some of the brutal treatment handed out to the player. He was frequently targeted by the hard men of opposing teams since getting him off the field weakened the Kildare men. In a league match against Dublin in 1927 he had to leave the field due to a serious injury. In 1928 in a final between the Garda and his own team the Army he was badly injured and there was a long delay in the game. Later that year in a championship game against Dublin he was repeatedly fouled and was eventually "crashed". In this tactic one player "accidently " held the opponent and another player crashed with maximum force into the front of the victim. In the 1929 All Ireland semi-final against Monaghan he had to retire due to injury. In the All Ireland final of 1935 he had a serious back injury and had to receive pain killing injection before the game and at half time. His back was also racked by boot studs during this game. In 1933 against Laois he sustained a serious eye injury.

In 1935 Jack Higgins retired from the game with severe injuries to his legs, to his back and spine and to his nose and sinuses, eye sockets and surrounding bone. He spend several years in and out of hospital due to his injuries.  These injuries to his legs and feet were exacerbated by type two diabetes. Jack contracted gangrene and eventually had to have a number of toes and both feet amputated in the Mater Hospital. He was often in great pain due to injuries sustained to his back and spine and could only find sleep at night either sitting upright in an arm chair or slumping forward over the steering wheel of his lorry as a way of minimizing the awful pain.

He underwent numerous operations and it was while undergoing one of these operations to his facial bones over the nose and between the eyes that he died suddenly on October 23rd 1955. Thousand travelled from all parts of the country to his funeral and a big contingent made the journey from Kerry. Among those who paid their respects at St Corbans Cemetery Naas were, John Joe Sheehy, Con Brosnan, Tadge Crowley, Dr Jim Brosnan, Johnny o Riordan, and Paul Russell. It is a wonderful, historic, exciting, sad and poignant story of a legendary player. It is many years over due. Well done to the author.

http://www.terracetalk.com/articles/312/A-Legendary-Lilywhite--Jack-Higgins-of-Kildare

[Mayo4Sam]

Too much playing Meath can do that to you

[Hardy]

That's brilliant. One of the Mayo lads gets an absolute me feiner there at 1:16.

Poor ould Jack Higgins, no less, dishing out this time.

[moysider]

Class. Never seen this before. The grandfather was captain that day.

I remember buying my first proper pair of boots off him. A real gentleman. He d nearly give ye the boots for nothing if ye were a young lad into the football. Used to go to our underage games as well.

[ONeill]

Looking at that footage - what made you a county footballer back then? Bravery and balls it seems. Little else. Even the free kicks were shit.

[Farrandeelin]

Looking at that footage - what made you a county footballer back then? Bravery and balls it seems. Little else. Even the free kicks were shit.

It sure as hell was 'manly' stuff.

[ONeill]

The final: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrVxWRpkpmg