Reflections On The Measure Of A Man
Jack Gibson passed away last night.
I’d say that the vast majority of my readers would never have heard of Jack, but he sure made an impact on me.
Jack took on the NRL (National Rugby League) team that I have been following since my school days, The Sydney Roosters (then Eastern Suburbs Roosters) as coach way back in 1967.
Gibson had played for the Eastern Suburbs club from 1953 until 1961.
Left: Jack Gibson in 1960.
The team hadn’t won a game the previous year, and in fact hadn’t won many for the previous few years, but in 1967 they made it to the finals.
Introduced to the teaching of legendary American Football coach Vince Lombardi in 1971, Gibson began to introduce Lombardi’s teaching to the St George Dragons, the team he was coaching at the time.
Lombardi had sayings like “mental toughness is the essential key to success” and “fatigue makes cowards of us all” and “confidence is contagious, and so is the lack of it”.
Up until this time, the Dragons had won only four of their first eight games, but from then until the end of that season lost only two of their remaining fourteen games, making the grand final that year against South Sydney.
Having signed to coach the Newtown Jets the following year, Gibson flew to Honolulu during the off season with fellow coach Terry Fearnly and met Dick Nolan, who was coaching the San Francisco 49ers.
Over the following years Gibson introduced a number of coaching methods from the NFL, and brought new levels of professionalism to Rugby League.
Returning to the Roosters, he coached them to back to back titles in 1974/1975. Below: Grand Final celebrations.
That team, along with the Paramatta Eels, whom he coached to three premierships from 1981 until 1983, are rated as the greatest Rugby League teams ever assembled.
Apart from other coaching honors, including coaching the NSW State of Origin team, Gibson also worked as a media commentator, and was renowned for his charity work.
Having written four books, he donated all the proceeds to research into schizophrenia, having lost his eldest son Luke to a drug overdose in 1988.
One of the greatest tributes came from Peter Sterling, halfback for the Parramatta Eels during Gibson’s reign there:
“He made wonderful footballers, but he also made wonderful people and I thank Jack Gibson eternally for being a part of my life and I know I speak on behalf of every rugby league player and every rugby league supporter who was lucky enough to see Jack in action.”
On the night May 09, 2008, when he was due to be honored by the National Rugby League as Coach of The Century, Gibson’s wife Judy released the following statement:
“Jack passed away comfortably today, at 6.32pm at the Garrawarra Centre, Waterfall, surrounded by his family.
We greatly appreciate the wonderful care he had received at Garrawarra, and also the caring and kind support afforded to us, the family.
We are dealing as well as we can and would ask that Jack’s many friends in their sadness that he is no longer with us, do not feel too sorry.
Jack would not want that; it was his own strong belief and appreciation that he had had a very fortunate life, and we know he would have wanted that to be the spirit of this time.”
Jack was to have been honored at the Centenary Test against New Zealand.
The game was played 100 years to the day after the inaugural game between the two nations.
1908 marked the date of the split from Rugby Union in Australia and New Zealand.
Although I never met Jack personally, because of his larger than life persona, I feel that I have lost a good friend, having followed his career all these years.
Links, sources and resources:
Rugby League Promo, 2003:
That’s My Team
Australia won the Centenary match 28 – 12.
Australia and New Zealand are fierce rivals in a number of sports, including Rugby Union, Rugby League, Cricket and Netball!
Sometimes this rivalry can become heated, and turn into a bit of old fashioned biffo, as can be seen here from an earlier game!
He sounds like he was a great bloke and was loved by many. May he rest in peace.