Joe Gibbon, a World Series champion with the Pittsburgh Pirates and SEC legend at Ole Miss, passed away a Feb. 20. He was 80.
The Hickory native won a state basketball championship with his hometown high school in 1953. He also played 13 seasons in Major League Baseball finishing with a career record of 61-65 and an ERA of 3.52 in 1,119 2/3 innings with 743 strikeouts and 32 saves.
At Ole Miss, he had huge success scoring 1,601 points in his career, was the SEC’s most valuable player in 1957, All-SEC basketball in both 1956 and 1957, All-SEC baseball in 1957 and an All-American in 1956. For his career, he averaged 18.6 points and 9.6 rebounds and averaged 30 points per game (without the 3-point shot) and 14.1 rebounds in his senior season despite only averaging 5 points per game in high school.
Gibbon came very close to taking a different path after high school. Ole Miss told him that they had run out of scholarships.
As he was making plans to enroll at East Central Community College, Meridian attorney Martin Van Buren Miller made a call to Ole Miss three weeks before school started that gave Gibbon the opportunity of a lifetime.
“He called up to Oxford and told them, ‘If this kid don’t play for you in both sports his freshman year, I’ll pay his way,’” Gibbon said in a 2016 Profile story. “They put me on a full baseball scholarship.”
That decision proved to be a successful one as Gibbon wound up being a two-sport star and winning a World Series with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960.
However, Gibbon didn’t get much experience playing organized baseball growing up. Most of the early days were just getting out in the pasture and playing baseball with kids around town.
Hickory didn’t field a high school baseball team. So he had to go to Newton to play American Legion baseball. Gibbon rode a bicycle or hitchhiked to and from the baseball field.
“There’s not too many kids that would do that to go play baseball now, but I loved the game,” Gibbon said.
While Brackeen accepted his invitation to the NBA’s New York Knicks, Gibbon turned down the Boston Celtics after being selected in the ninth round as the 69th overall pick.
Basketball wasn’t Gibbon’s first love.
“I didn’t even return their phone call,” Gibbon said.
Gibbon, a left-handed pitcher, was a Cardinals fan growing up, and Stan Musial was his favorite player. Gibbon’s go-to pitch was the fastball.
“It had a lot of movement,” Gibbon said. “When it left my hand, they didn’t know what it was going to do.”
Gibbon signed with the Pirates, who sent Gibbon to Lincoln of the Class A Western League. Gibbon started out as a pitcher and outfielder for the Chiefs, hurling in 17 games and appearing in 39 games overall.
In 1958, Pittsburgh promoted Gibbon to the Triple-A Columbus Red Birds and then went to the Dominican Republic for the 1958-59 winter season. He returned to Columbus for 1959 and finished 16-9 with 152 strikeouts.
Gibbon made the Pirates during 1960 spring training. He made his major-league debut – and got his first victory – in the second game of a doubleheader against Cincinnati at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field on April 17.
The 1960 Pirates finished 95-59, won the pennant and faced the Yankees in a classic World Series. Gibbon appeared in games two and three.
However, the series came down Bill Mazeroski walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of game seven.
“That was probably the greatest moment of my playing career when Mazeroski hit the home run,” Gibbon said.
He played with Pittsburgh until 1965 and again in 1969. He also played for the San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds and the Houston Astros before retiring in 1973.
Gibbon would have never met his wife Donna if it wasn’t for baseball. He originally met Donna in Columbus, Ohio. He already knew her cousin because she had gone to a number of baseball games.
Her cousin called Gibbon and asked if he wanted to go to dinner with her and Donna, who was in town from Pittsburgh. He didn’t want to go at first, but one of his buddies convinced him to go.
“He talked me into going with her and I wound up marrying her,” Gibbon said. “I didn’t know whether I’d see her again.”
After his stay in Columbus, Gibbon wound up making the Pirates roster and then reconnected with Donna after he moved.
After baseball, Joe and Donnan came back to Newton County. He has five children — Joseph C. Jr., David Opie, Jennifer Diane, Luke Andrew and Robert Daniel.
“I’ve had a great career,” Gibbon said. “It was great to have the opportunity to be in the Major League in the era that I played.”
