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JACK GIBSON was buried yesterday wearing a Roosters tracksuit, and it could not have been more appropriate: the coach on the job, right to the very end.
The 1200-strong crowd at Gibson's funeral in Cronulla represented how the master-coach touched all walks of life, and stretched out to every corner of rugby league. Before the service, sporting legends such as Ron Barassi, Jack Newton, Dawn Fraser and Johnny Lewis mingled with icons of the game such as Wayne Bennett, Keith Barnes, Warren Ryan, Ron Coote and Noel Kelly.
The heroes of Parramatta's premiership-winning sides from the early 1980s, including Mick Cronin, Peter Sterling, Brett Kenny and Eric Grothe, yarned as if they were standing in the middle of the SCG, waiting for the coach to make his way down from the Ladies Stand after claiming another Winfield Cup. "But make no mistake, Eastern Suburbs was his side," said former international Arthur Beetson, the Roosters captain when Gibson led them to back-to-back premierships in 1974-75. "He'd told me that."
It was for this reason Gibson's wife, Judy, phoned the Roosters earlier this week so her husband could be buried in the colours of the club where it all started: as a player in the front row in 1953 and as a coach in 1967, with a side that had not won a game the previous year.
It was the start of a journey that revolutionised rugby league, yielded five premierships and demanded his naming as Coach of the Century last month. His youngest son, John, placed the blazer Jack received that night on his coffin.
Many had struggled to visit Gibson since dementia had cut down the sharpest mind in the game and forced him into a nursing home two years ago but they packed St Aloysius Catholic Church yesterday. Others watched on the big screen outside.
So much has been said and written about Gibson since his passing last Friday night, aged 79, just 90 minutes before kick-off before the Centenary Test between Australia and New Zealand. But his eldest daughter, Susan, revealed a side of Big Jack few had known - the practical joker who loved his "flashy cars, coats and his dogs", lit fires in the backyard and disobeyed water restrictions to put them out. "We are thankful of the quality time we spent with Dad in the last few weeks of his life," she said. "He passed away as he had lived his life: with little fuss and with dignity."
John Quayle, the former league powerbroker who delivered the eulogy, recalled his first meeting with the coach more than 40 years ago when he came down from the bush as a teenager to play for Eastern Suburbs. Jack was driving a white convertible Cadillac that night; the next week he was driving an old Holden. "He'd lost it in a card game," Quayle grinned.
But Big Jack was no loser. "We would go to Long Bay jail and we would be wondering what we'd be doing here," Quayle recalled. "'There's a few blokes I want to see,' he'd say. We'd go into the yard and there would be dozens of inmates wanting to see him. Sometimes there'd be two dozen. Sometimes there would be hundreds They just wanted that one line, that one piece of advice, that would get them through."
When it was all said and done, the current Roosters squad, headed by coach Brad Fittler - and including NSW players Craig Fitzgibbon, Willie Mason and Anthony Tupou, who had put State of Origin preparations aside for the afternoon - formed a guard of honour as Big Jack was driven away and laid to rest at a private burial service.
Fittingly, he was wearing the tri-colours of the club he adored, as he did the game. Although he wouldn't have liked the fuss, Quayle reckoned: "He'd have said, 'Don't speak to long. The food's comin' on."'
Interesting choice given his later success at Parra.
JACK GIBSON was buried yesterday wearing a Roosters tracksuit, and it could not have been more appropriate: the coach on the job, right to the very end.
The 1200-strong crowd at Gibson's funeral in Cronulla represented how the master-coach touched all walks of life, and stretched out to every corner of rugby league. Before the service, sporting legends such as Ron Barassi, Jack Newton, Dawn Fraser and Johnny Lewis mingled with icons of the game such as Wayne Bennett, Keith Barnes, Warren Ryan, Ron Coote and Noel Kelly.
The heroes of Parramatta's premiership-winning sides from the early 1980s, including Mick Cronin, Peter Sterling, Brett Kenny and Eric Grothe, yarned as if they were standing in the middle of the SCG, waiting for the coach to make his way down from the Ladies Stand after claiming another Winfield Cup. "But make no mistake, Eastern Suburbs was his side," said former international Arthur Beetson, the Roosters captain when Gibson led them to back-to-back premierships in 1974-75. "He'd told me that."
It was for this reason Gibson's wife, Judy, phoned the Roosters earlier this week so her husband could be buried in the colours of the club where it all started: as a player in the front row in 1953 and as a coach in 1967, with a side that had not won a game the previous year.
It was the start of a journey that revolutionised rugby league, yielded five premierships and demanded his naming as Coach of the Century last month. His youngest son, John, placed the blazer Jack received that night on his coffin.
Many had struggled to visit Gibson since dementia had cut down the sharpest mind in the game and forced him into a nursing home two years ago but they packed St Aloysius Catholic Church yesterday. Others watched on the big screen outside.
So much has been said and written about Gibson since his passing last Friday night, aged 79, just 90 minutes before kick-off before the Centenary Test between Australia and New Zealand. But his eldest daughter, Susan, revealed a side of Big Jack few had known - the practical joker who loved his "flashy cars, coats and his dogs", lit fires in the backyard and disobeyed water restrictions to put them out. "We are thankful of the quality time we spent with Dad in the last few weeks of his life," she said. "He passed away as he had lived his life: with little fuss and with dignity."
John Quayle, the former league powerbroker who delivered the eulogy, recalled his first meeting with the coach more than 40 years ago when he came down from the bush as a teenager to play for Eastern Suburbs. Jack was driving a white convertible Cadillac that night; the next week he was driving an old Holden. "He'd lost it in a card game," Quayle grinned.
But Big Jack was no loser. "We would go to Long Bay jail and we would be wondering what we'd be doing here," Quayle recalled. "'There's a few blokes I want to see,' he'd say. We'd go into the yard and there would be dozens of inmates wanting to see him. Sometimes there'd be two dozen. Sometimes there would be hundreds They just wanted that one line, that one piece of advice, that would get them through."
When it was all said and done, the current Roosters squad, headed by coach Brad Fittler - and including NSW players Craig Fitzgibbon, Willie Mason and Anthony Tupou, who had put State of Origin preparations aside for the afternoon - formed a guard of honour as Big Jack was driven away and laid to rest at a private burial service.
Fittingly, he was wearing the tri-colours of the club he adored, as he did the game. Although he wouldn't have liked the fuss, Quayle reckoned: "He'd have said, 'Don't speak to long. The food's comin' on."'
Interesting choice given his later success at Parra.
