Former Edmonton Eskimo star Larry Highbaugh dies
Highbaugh won 6 Grey Cups with the Eskimos
Former Edmonton Eskimo star Larry Highbaugh has died.
The CFL Hall of Fame member was a teacher at Gwinnett County High School in Snellville, Georgia.
He was 67.
The Gwinnett Daily Post reported that Highbaugh died Tuesday evening after complications from a heart procedure earlier in the day.
"Before there was Gizmo Williams, there was Larry Highbaugh," said Allan Watt, who worked with the Eskimos from 1980 to 1996. "He was small in stature, but he was a very fast player and a colourful guy.
"When you had Larry Highbaugh and you had him healthy and you had him playing on the corner, that was a side of the field you didn't need to worry about," he said.
After he retired from the Eskimos, Highbaugh stayed in Edmonton and would tour Edmonton schools as a one-man volleyball team, Watt recalled.
"He did stay-in-school stuff and would go by himself and play against a junior-high-school boys volleyball team and take the whole team on by himself," he said. "The whole gym would just be screaming with excitement."
While a player with the Eskimos, Highbaugh also sold merchandise for the team on game day, said Watt.
"I will always remember Larry as a really good athlete, colourful guy, not a quiet guy, a smiling, happy guy ... and a family guy as well," he said.
John Farlinger, another teammate of Highbaugh's, remembered him as more than just a star athlete.
"I think Larry understood his role as one of the guys that could win football games," he told CBC's Radio Active program Wednesday. "There's a lot more to sports than just athletic ability.
"Larry was a really great teammate."
During his career with the Edmonton Eskimos and B.C. Lions, he made 66 interceptions, second most in the CFL, and amassed 4,966 kickoff return yards, sixth all-time in CFL history.
He was inducted into the CFL Hall of Fame in 2004.