Couple Ensures Hobo Day Legacy Lives On

Jim Higgins arrived on campus from Wessington Springs in the fall of 1968.

He was a Briggs Scholar, freshman class president, electrical engineering major, played varsity basketball, and worked as a resident assistant.

Yet, the Hobo Day Committee was a priority amidst all of it; he served four years and was chairman in 1972.

Fifty miles to the south, Jim’s high school sweetheart and future wife, Julie Goehring, was studying elementary education at Augustana College. Still, she embraced the Hobo Day lifestyle. She went on summer parade tours, slept in local fire halls, and ate with other hobos at the National Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa.

Her name won’t appear on any rosters; she was a hobo – by choice.

Those lifelong friendships and leadership opportunities that emerged from Jim’s work on the committee motivated the Tulsa, Oklahoma, couple to commit $500,000 to the Hobo Day Legacy Endowment.

They’d been thinking about ways to give back to SDSU. The Hobo Day opportunity resonated.

As chairman, Jim interacted with President Hilton M. Briggs, Dean of Women Vivian Volstoff, and other university leaders.

“It was such a learning experience,” he said. As a 21-year-old, “you felt the responsibility.” But the process reinforced “there’s nothing I can’t do.”

To that point, he leveraged a modest sum of money to book a concert to raise money for Hobo Day. The Grass Roots, who sold 20 million records, packed The Barn.

Local physician Dr. Francis Xavier McCabe altered Jim’s career path. He recalls McCabe’s “compassion and skill as a surgeon.” McCabe invited Jim to observe an early-morning gallbladder surgery.

Soon after, Jim found himself in Dr. Bill Wadsworth’s organic chemistry class. After graduation, he hitchhiked to interviews at several prestigious medical schools before finding the University of Rochester (N.Y.) School of Medicine and Dentistry to be the right fit.

It propelled Jim to a nearly 50-year career as a cardiologist, with expertise in treating aneurysms, coronary artery disease, and chronic high blood pressure. He’s the holder of multiple patents.

When Jim and Julie returned for the 50th reunion of the 1972 Hobo Day Committee, the group was told about the need for sustained funding for SDSU’s beloved tradition. The goal was a $1 million endowment. About 18 months later, over lunch in a Tulsa restaurant, they were asked to consider a lead gift of $500,000.

To recognize their generosity, the area outside the Hobo Day Gallery where the statues of Weary Wil and Dirty Lil stand is being expanded to create the Jim and Julie Higgins Hobo Day Plaza.