As a niche sport, although snooker is rarely seen in the world sports arena, it still attracts many fans to be fascinated by it, of course, these are inseparable from the contribution and dedication of some players.
Looking back at the entire history of snooker, whenever snooker is on the verge of withdrawing from the stage of history, there will be a player with a very ornamental style of play, which will revitalize the sport.
For some time in the last century, snooker's dull playing style did not even have the audience choose to buy tickets to watch the game, until the appearance of "Hurricane" Alex Higgins, let the fans understand that snooker can still have this way of playing.
Born in 1949, Hurricane Alex Higgins was introduced to billiards at the age of ten and won the Northern Ireland Championship at the age of nineteen, and as the best snooker player in Northern Ireland, Higgins undoubtedly saved the snooker event that was already on the edge of the cliff that year.
Unlike other traditional players, the Hurricanes are a fierce genius and an alcoholic, in stark contrast to the snooker players of the year. Higgins brings the audience the most visual enjoyment, because no one has ever used his style of play before.
Because of this, Higgins made the dull atmosphere of the arena hot, and coupled with his flowing style of play and the famous "body jam", it often pushed the enthusiasm of the audience to the peak.
Higgins' various bizarre operations made the audience realize that the original snooker not only had a dull bat, but could also be so passionate, and this untamed genius single-handedly promoted the development of the entire snooker at that time.
Throughout his career, Hurricane Higgins topped the World Championship twice and set the record for the youngest world champion at the 1972 World Championships, a record that was not broken until 18 years later by the later "Emperor of Billiards" Hendry.
The most memorable for fans is the 1983 British Championship, when Hurricane Higgins was in a coma for four days due to taking a large number of sleeping pills before the game, and woke up to a 7-0 lead by Davis in the final, and then staged a stunning reversal to win the championship at 16:15.
However, due to long-term alcoholism and "drug addiction", Higgins's health has long been problematic, and this slum-born talented player, like the protagonist in the novel, has not escaped the trick of fate.
I believe that fans are more familiar with the above photo, long-term smoking and alcoholism made Higgins suffer from throat cancer and oral cancer, which directly led to his basic inability to eat and speak, and his weight was less than 40 kilograms.
In 2010, hurricane Higgins, who was only 61 years old, was found dead in his apartment, and the talented player who changed the history of snooker quietly left the world.
Although his poor lifestyle plagued him with illness in his later years, this did not affect his contribution to the snooker movement in the slightest. Even the equally unruly Ronnie O'Sullivan saw Hurricane Higgins as his snooker guiding light.
If Alex Higgins hadn't been there, perhaps Snooker would not have been as well known to fans as it is today.