Snooker Legend Alex “Hurricane” Higgins Dies

Former snooker world champion Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higginsis dead at 61. After a long battle with throat cancer, which finally gave up the fight and was found dead and alone in his apartment in Belfast on July 24, 2010. Having amassed a fortune during his career, Higgins spent most of it on women and drinking and eventually died in poverty, having been divorced by his two wives and losing contact with their children. Photos of him shortly before his death showed him as a tragic figure, desperate and looking thin much older than his 60 years. 
   
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland on March 18, 1949, Higgins was an excellent pool player, winning the world championships in 1972 and again in 1982 but his reign was always worried. Do not call ‘Hurricane Higgins’ for nothing, was known for his temper tantrums, including a header pool tournament director and the prohibition of an entire season for threats against fellow snooker player Dennis Taylor in 1990. He was also convicted in 1996 for assaulting a 14 year old boy. His performance style hurricanes resulted in the loss of his two wives and two children. 

Higgins had been warned several times about his drinking and snuff and the effect it was having on their health. Smoking 80 cigarettes a day finally took a toll and twice had cancerous growths removed from his mouth before he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1998. Since then he has struggled to stay in the pool area, with the signing of the tournaments that do not always attend. However, their financial situation was in dire straits, living on benefits and living in sheltered housing. A report in the News of the World announced that he had been thinking about suicide, but decided not to. 

In May 2010, appeared in public for the first time in a while and shocked the British public with his gauntness at around 6 stone. Chemotherapy for cancer had made him lose his teeth and was having trouble eating, living baby food. He attended a charity dinner in his honor to raise £ 20,000 for emergency surgery on his teeth so he can eat again. Unfortunately, the money did not arrive soon enough to save him – and who knows if it would have saved anyway. 

This is a sad end for a man who once was a hero. Higgins was a man with an enormous amount of talent, but unfortunately, he used his earnings to smoke and drink and behave badly, never really being able to admit that their problems were his own. Unfortunately, his family, especially his two daughters with his second wife, Lynne, never had the chance to know him well and now have to live their lives without really knowing who his father. If ever there was a lesson about money does not buy happiness, it has to be. 

However, rest in peace, Alex Higgins. You were far from perfect, but how many of us? And, on top of his game, he bought such pleasure to the world with his talent.