In 2006, Jim Higgins was honored with the University's Outstanding Contribution to Athletics Award in 2006. He remarked that when he arrived on campus that night, he was just as excited as the day he first stepped foot there in 1966.

Jim grew up in Dumont, NJ, a bedroom community of 18,000 in northeastern Bergen County. An model student-athlete, Higgins earned all-county honors in football and basketball at Don Bosco Prep, where he joined fellow classmate Charlie Adrion in accepting a basketball scholarship from Georgetown in 1966. By the time the two arrived at Georgetown, a new basketball coach stood on the sidelines, but Higgins would be a vital part of the program over this three years on the varsity.

"The stocky guard is the epitome of the never-say-die type", wrote the 1969-70 Georgetown media guide. "Higgins makes up for what he lacks in spectacular moves by outhustling opponents." Over three seasons, Higgins averaged 1.6 points per game, with a career high of just four points in . Joining Adrion as co-captain as a senior, the 1969-70 Hoyas earned the school's first post-season bid in 17 years.

In his early 20's, Higgins went into the financial services industry with Dean Witter & Co. Three decades and one merger later, he was President and COO of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, retiring at the age of 57. Even then, Jim never retired from Georgetown.

Jim Higgins was a relentless advocate for Georgetown. A former member of the University's Board of Directors and chairman of its Board of Regents from 2003-06, Higgins was a co-founder of the Wall Street Alliance in 1993, a group which has raised over $10 million in scholarship support to the University. In 2002, he received the John Carroll Award, the Georgetown University Alumni Association's highest honor. Higgins is one of only five former basketball players so honored over the years.

In 2004, Higgins was asked to join former athletic director Frank Rienzo to review and recommend candidates for the vacant men's basketball coaching position. The committee forwarded the name of John Thompson III to University president Jack DeGioia, who hired Thompson that month.

Jim Higgins died in 2016 at the age of 68.