WHITE PLAINS ‒ It was Aug. 11, 2024, and Gerard “Oopie” Seward and Kevin “Higgszy” Higgs were side by side, as they’d been all their lives, standing midcourt at the Westchester County Center, the mecca of basketball in these parts.
They were there to wrap up the latest season at another, lesser-known hoops mecca, the one they’d been nurturing for decades in their backyard, less than a half-mile away. The occasion was championship night for Ferris World Ball, a street basketball league wrapping up its 41st summer of games outdoors in White Plains’ Gardella Park.
On that night last August, Ferris World Ball’s championship game was played indoors for the first time, at the home of the Westchester Knicks and generations of high school championship basketball games.
The league returns to Gardella Park on June 8 for its nine-week run and its 42nd summer, but Higgs won’t be there to mark his 25th summer. The former Westchester County corrections officer had a heart attack and died on March 20, age 51, leaving a void on Ferris Avenue, among friends, family and fans of no-nonsense basketball.
Seward and Higgs, the co-directors of Ferris World Ball, looked straight at the camera, all business, as they posed with the title game’s MVP, Ronnie Thomas, of Team Gunhill, league champion three of the past four summers. Seward’s hand clenched Higgs’ shoulder, his best friend at his right hand.
Lenore Sherrod-Higgs wrote her husband’s obituary, which touched on his consistency.
“From the moment he walked in the door from work to when he stepped out to work, he never took time for himself, always prioritizing his family,” she wrote.
Ferris World Ball remembers one of its pillars: Kevin ‘Higgszy’ Higgs
Seward marked the loss on Instagram.
“To my lifelong friend, right hand and brother, thank you,” he wrote. “For everything you’ve done, for everyone you’ve touched and for the integral role you’ve played — not just in Ferris World Ball, but in our lives. You were a man of honor, morals, discipline and unwavering dedication. Your words were true, your friendship was genuine and your love for your family and community never wavered. There will NEVER be another like you.”
Ivan Jones is another close friend of Higgs’ and Seward’s.
“We all grew up together: Oopie, me, Kevin,” Jones said recently, sitting on the concrete steps at Gardella. “This was our backyard. We didn’t grow up in a house with the picket fence. We didn’t have, you know, the great dream that everybody wants when they come to America. We labeled this as our backyard. And we did everything, football, baseball, everything was right here, the pool, too.”
They were just kids when Jerome “Bump” Robinson spearheaded the White Plains Rec Department’s summer basketball park in their backyard. And they’ve been here ever since, not missing a summer. The tournament was rechristened Ferris World Ball a few years ago and has become a White Plains must-see: Summer weeknights of top-flight basketball with a DJ and an emcee. Alumni includes college standout R.J. Davis and former NBA players Sean Kilpatrick, Matt Ryan and A.J. Griffin.
Seward said he and Higgs were always talking. Each spring was full of logistics, tryouts and registrations, which teams were in, which teams were out. There were parents to talk to, kids to sign up, a million details to see to, so many conversations between friends. That’s where a steady guy like Higgs, who worked for nearly 20 years at the Westchester County Department of Corrections, was essential.
Seward handled the adult division and Higgs handled the high school division, but there was a lot of overlap. They knew all the same people and the numbers to call to rally folks every summer.
Kevin Higgs pulled no punches
Like any childhood friend, Jones recalled, Kevin Higgs called it like he saw it.
When Jones shared a photo of a kitchen drawer he built, you could see in the picture a pair of slippers he had bought at a Walmart in Puerto Rico, slippers with a knock-off logo that might have wanted to look like a Jordan logo.
“Kevin calls me to ask if that is a ping-pong player on my slippers,” Jones said with a laugh. “He didn’t say nothing about the drawer. That’s the kind of guy he is. Was.”
Ferris Avenue, White Plains, born and raised
Higgs had three sons, Julien, 29, Jeremy, 21, and Jahanzeb, 10.
Jeremy Higgs said his father’s focus was clear. “He wanted to bring the community together to watch good basketball,” he said. “It started as a little thing. Everybody knew it was a White Plains tournament. But we expanded it to the whole different scene, where we got people from out of state, from other cities, coming in.”
Wherever they came from, when they arrived, they were in Higgs’ neighborhood, Ferris Avenue, born and raised.
“He just wanted a platform where anybody from the Westchester community can come and have a chance to play basketball,” Jeremy said.
What will “Oopie” Seward miss most about his lifelong friend?
“Just him,” he said softly.
Peter D. Kramer is a 37-year staffer who writes long-form narratives on a variety of topics. His story looking back on the Oak Street fire in Yonkers won a national Headliner Award for outstanding news specials/feature column. Reach him at pkramer@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: White Plains hoops league, Ferris World Ball, goes on without Kevin ‘Higgszy’ Higgs
Reporting by Peter D. Kramer, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
