Higdon also excelled academically as he was awarded the silver medal at the 1983 and 1984 Ohio State Championship Language Competition Olympiada of Spoken Russian.
[6] Cris Carter, Chris Spielman, and Tom Tupa joined Higdon as the most heralded 1984 recruits as all four were consensus High School All-Americans and all four went on to play professional football in the NFL.
[7] Despite lettering all four years and attaining All-Big Ten Status his senior season, Higdon's collegiate career was curtailed by multiple injuries during his tenure with the Buckeyes.
Despite tearing wrist ligaments which cut short his senior season, the Atlanta Falcons chose Higdon as the 56th pick in the 1988 NFL draft largely on the strength of his performances at the 1988 Senior Bowl and the NFL Scouting Combine where he ran a 4.54 second 40-yard dash time and completed 28 repetitions of 225 pounds on the bench press.
[13] During an accelerated rehabilitation regimen just three months after his initial surgery, Higdon severely damaged his ACL, MCL, and LCL ligaments while participating in a supervised workout.