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Voices Big Jack could not hear
Family tragedy: Supercoach Jack Gibson with his son Luke. Source: The Daily Telegraph
JACK Gibson was the supercoach who shaped generations of young men by saying very little, but just enough.
The tragic irony of Big Jack's life was that nothing he said could save his own flesh and blood. From preventing his eldest son, Luke, suffering a fatal heroin overdose.
This Friday night, the Roosters and Eels will play for the Jack Gibson Cup at Parramatta Stadium and while the only thing on the line for the players is pride, the match has deeper meaning.
Since its inception following Jack's death in May 2008, the game has been used to promote awareness about schizophrenia - the devastating mental illness that affects one in a hundred young people. Luke Gibson was one of those, and the problem for Jack and his wife Judy in the 1980s was that there was little they could do about it.
Despite a happy and normal upbringing as one of six children, it was around the age of 14 that Luke's behaviour started to become erratic.
Jack and Judy consulted a legion of doctors and psychiatrists to explain it, but they were loathe to label it as schizophrenia.
When Luke was 23, the Gibson family was huddled around the television one evening when ABC presenter Trish Goddard opened up about her sister and how she suffered from the affliction.
"That's Luke," said Sue, Jack's eldest daughter, out loud.
Jack never spoke about it in so many words. Throughout the seasons at the Roosters and Parramatta, he remained silent on the trouble of dealing with his son. "He always dealt with it quietly," recalls Judy Gibson.
"Always quietly."
For the Gibsons, the diagnosis that came soon after was a relief. The problem was dealing with it.
Luke's mental state led him to dabbling with drugs, which led him to heroin, which ended with him overdosing in January 1988. He was 25.
His death floored Big Jack and those close to him say he was never the same man, because he blamed himself for not being able to prevent it. Then it became his crusade. He raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for research into the illness, then he and Judy became founding members of the of the Schizophrenia Research Institute in 1996.
Living with schizophrenia means your mind has lost touch with reality - the terrible voices are constant - and it robs people of an education, a career and relationships.
It is a major contributor to youth suicide.
Big Jack helped shape the clubs who will contest the cup named in his honour.
He won premierships with the Roosters in 1974-75, and then the Eels in 1981-83.
To know that both clubs were helping raise awareness for a cause so close to his heart would surely make the supercoach smile.
Those wanting to donate can do so at the website: www.jackgibsoncup.com.au.
Supercoach - The Life and Times of Jack Gibson, by Andrew Webster, will be published by Allen & Unwin and released in early November.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/nrl/voices-big-jack-could-not-hear/story-e6frfgbo-1226120864352
- Andrew Webster
- From: The Daily Telegraph
- August 24, 2011 12:00AM
Family tragedy: Supercoach Jack Gibson with his son Luke. Source: The Daily Telegraph
JACK Gibson was the supercoach who shaped generations of young men by saying very little, but just enough.
The tragic irony of Big Jack's life was that nothing he said could save his own flesh and blood. From preventing his eldest son, Luke, suffering a fatal heroin overdose.
This Friday night, the Roosters and Eels will play for the Jack Gibson Cup at Parramatta Stadium and while the only thing on the line for the players is pride, the match has deeper meaning.
Since its inception following Jack's death in May 2008, the game has been used to promote awareness about schizophrenia - the devastating mental illness that affects one in a hundred young people. Luke Gibson was one of those, and the problem for Jack and his wife Judy in the 1980s was that there was little they could do about it.
Despite a happy and normal upbringing as one of six children, it was around the age of 14 that Luke's behaviour started to become erratic.
Jack and Judy consulted a legion of doctors and psychiatrists to explain it, but they were loathe to label it as schizophrenia.
When Luke was 23, the Gibson family was huddled around the television one evening when ABC presenter Trish Goddard opened up about her sister and how she suffered from the affliction.
"That's Luke," said Sue, Jack's eldest daughter, out loud.
Jack never spoke about it in so many words. Throughout the seasons at the Roosters and Parramatta, he remained silent on the trouble of dealing with his son. "He always dealt with it quietly," recalls Judy Gibson.
"Always quietly."
For the Gibsons, the diagnosis that came soon after was a relief. The problem was dealing with it.
Luke's mental state led him to dabbling with drugs, which led him to heroin, which ended with him overdosing in January 1988. He was 25.
His death floored Big Jack and those close to him say he was never the same man, because he blamed himself for not being able to prevent it. Then it became his crusade. He raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for research into the illness, then he and Judy became founding members of the of the Schizophrenia Research Institute in 1996.
Living with schizophrenia means your mind has lost touch with reality - the terrible voices are constant - and it robs people of an education, a career and relationships.
It is a major contributor to youth suicide.
Big Jack helped shape the clubs who will contest the cup named in his honour.
He won premierships with the Roosters in 1974-75, and then the Eels in 1981-83.
To know that both clubs were helping raise awareness for a cause so close to his heart would surely make the supercoach smile.
Those wanting to donate can do so at the website: www.jackgibsoncup.com.au.
Supercoach - The Life and Times of Jack Gibson, by Andrew Webster, will be published by Allen & Unwin and released in early November.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/nrl/voices-big-jack-could-not-hear/story-e6frfgbo-1226120864352
