Former Greats - Jack Gibson /

Jack Gibson OAM

After a stellar playing career in which he played 123 first grade games in the forwards for the Roosters, including captaining the team in the 1960 Grand Final, Jack Gibson took over as Roosters first grade coach when the club was at its lowest ebb. The club had played semi finals just twice in its previous 21 seasons and had won just eight games in the four seasons immediately prior to his appointment. The season prior to taking over as coach (1966), the club lost every first grade match.

Whilst the club's fortunes didn't turn around immediately (the club won its first match of 1967 in Round 6), it didn't take long for Gibson (later to be dubbed 'Super Coach') to weave his magic. He took the wooden spooners to their first final series since 1960 and they went from the worst defensive side in 1966 to the best in 1967 without a major infusion of new talent. The club was again semi finalists in 1968 before Gibson took a break from coaching, having transformed the Roosters from the depths of despair, they were in prior to his coaching appointment, to one of the top four clubs in the competition.

Gibson returned to the club in 1974, and with a team comprising many of the players who would become greats of the club, won the Pre-Season Cup (defeating South Sydney 43-0 in the Final) and claimed the minor premiership thast year, losing just three games. That 1974 team, under Gibson's coaching would go on to win the premiership, the first for the club in 29 years, defeating Canterbury-Bankstown 19-4 in the grand final. In 1975 the club won a record 19 successive matches during the season on its way to a second successive minor premiership (with just two losses in Rounds 2 and 3). The Roosters won the 1975 Mid-Season Cup (defeating Parramatta 17-7 in the Final) and went on to win a second successive premiership, defeating St George 38-0 in the grand final (a record score at the time). Those teams of 1974 and 1975 have been rightly hailed as amongst the greatest ever rugby league club sides. Under Gibson's guidance the club also won the club championship in both 1974 and 1975.

In Gibson's final season as Roosters coach, the club made the semi finals again, the fifth time in five years with Gibson as coach that the club had finished in the top four, but couldn't replicate the extraordinary feats of the previous two seasons. However, it did win the first ever World Club Challenge, defeating the British champions St Helens 25-2. A few years after leaving the Roosters, Gibson spent three years as Parramatta coach, winning a title in each year, the first premierships won by the Eels. The influence of Jack Gibson on the Roosters, as it was at Parramatta, was immense and he is regarded as one of the greatest ever rugby league coaches, if not the very best.