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Those Who Died That Others Might Be Free

 

Roswell Higginbotham

 

Date and Place of Birth: 1898 Jamison, Texas
Date and Place of Death: May 23, 1943 Quonset Point Naval Air Station, Rhode Island
Baseball Experience: Minor League
Position: Infielder
Rank: Lieutenant (jg)
Military Unit: US Navy
Area Served: United States

 

Higginbotham, star athlete of Texas A & M college, back in the early 1920s, died from complications following an abdominal operation.

Port Arthur News May 30, 1943

 

Roswell G Higginbotham was born in Jamison, Texas in 1898. He first gained prominence as an athlete at Sherman High School. He went on to become an outstanding football and baseball player at Texas A&M from the fall of 1917 to spring 1920, and pitched a no-hitter against the University of Texas in 1919.

 

Following in the footsteps of his older brother, Graly - a minor league baseball player between 1912 and 1922 - Roswell signed a professional contract with the St Louis Cardinals as a second baseman in 1921. He attended spring training at Orange, Texas and was then assigned to the Paris Snappers in the Texas-Oklahoma League, where he hit .301 and led the league with 53 stolen bases. Higginbotham was again with Paris in 1922, moving to shortstop and batting .315. He also got a late season call up to the Fort Worth Cats of the Texas League and was back with the Cardinals for spring training in 1924. That was to be Higginbotham's last season in professional baseball until a brief return in 1928, when he played with the San Angelo Red Snappers in the West Texas League and batted .286 with 10 home runs, and then in 1930 with Anniston of the Georgia-Alabama League where he batted .341 with 23 home runs.

 

In 1923, Higginbotham also worked as a backfield football coach at Austin College, and was the baseball coach at Austin in 1924.

 

In 1927, he returned to Texas A&M as the freshman football coach, a position he held for eight years. Higginbotham was also the head baseball coach for five years and produced two championship teams including A&M's first ever Southwest Conference baseball title in 1931.

 

Also, in 1931, Higginbotham was back at Austin College as a student. And, in 1932, a son, Bobby, was born to Roswell and his wife Elizabeth Tuck, whom he had met in high school and married in 1920.

 

In 1936, Higginbotham moved to Southern Methodist University (SMU) where he served as head baseball coach, freshman football coach and scout. Higginbotham remained in that position until April 1943 when, at the age of 44, he entered military service.

 

Lieutenant (jg) Higginbotham was stationed at Quonset Point Naval Air Station in Rhode Island. But two weeks after his arrival he underwent an emergency abdominal operation at the Naval hospital. He did not recover from the operation and died May 23, 1943.

 

 

"I have met many of his former SMU players," says his grandson, Scott Higginbotham, "and have heard nothing but great things. They tell me he was strict, and extremely fair. All had the highest respect. I would have loved to have known him."

 

Roswell Higginbotham is buried in Sherman, Texas. His widow, Elizabeth, never remarried and passed away in 2002, aged 102.

In 1973, Higginbotham was elected to the Texas A&M Athletic Hall of Fame.

 

 

Thanks to the Higginbotham family, David L. Chapman, University Archivist and Associate Director, Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, Texas A&M University and to Davis O Barker for help with this biography.

 

Added September 10, 2006. Updated January 23, 2008.

 

Copyright © 2007 Gary Bedingfield (Baseball in Wartime). All Rights Reserved.