James Edwin Gibbons (September 26, 1936 – August 20, 2016) was an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

for the NFL's

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

(1958–68).

Early life

Gibbons was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. He attended the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

, where played on teams with future Detroit Lion teammate

Alex Karras Alexander George Karras (July 15, 1935 – October 10, 2012) was an American football player, professional wrestler, sportscaster, and actor. He was a four-time Pro Bowl player with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL), ...

. He earned

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

and All-Big 10 honors as a senior and Hawkeye team captain in 1957. In a 1957 game against

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

he caught nine passes for 164 yards and two touchdowns in a 44-20 Iowa victory. In the 1957 Rose Bowl, Gibbons was a starter on the #3-ranked Iowa team that defeated #10-ranked

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

35-19, catching a 16-yard pass from quarterback and the game's

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

Ken Ploen Kenneth Ploen LAYN (born June 3, 1935) is a former star quarterback in American college football and for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League (CFL). College football In 1956, Ploen became the University of Iowa Hawkeyes s ...

. His touchdown catch in a home game against

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

on November 10, 1956, was the lone score in the game and clinched the Rose Bowl appearance and at least a tie for the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

championship (which the team went on to win) for Iowa as the #7-ranked Hawkeyes defeated the #6-ranked Buckeyes, 6-0.

Professional career

Gibbons and Karras were two of seven Hawkeyes selected by NFL teams in the 1958 draft; Karras was the 10th player chosen as the Lions' #1 pick. Gibbons was drafted in the sixth round by the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

. The 6'3", 220-pound tight end spent all of training camp with Cleveland and had impressed the coaching staff. However, three days prior to the first regular season game, the Browns acquired punter Dick Deschaine from the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

. To make room on the roster, Gibbons was traded to the Lions in exchange for a fifth round draft pick in 1960. Cleveland used that pick to acquire guard

John Wooten John B. Wooten (born December 5, 1936) is a former American football guard who played nine professional seasons in the National Football League (NFL) for the Cleveland Browns and Washington Redskins. Wooten played college football at the Univer ...

, a two-time

All-Pro All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list th ...

who started for the Browns through the 1967 season. Gibbons blossomed as a key part of the Lions' offense for the next seven seasons, playing with the club 11 years overall. He earned

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

honors three-times during his career, after the

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

and 1964 seasons. He had a career year in 1964, earning Lion

honors, catching 45 passes for 605 yards and 8 touchdowns. Also in 1964, Gibbons set the Lions record for receiving yards in a game by a tight end, with 161 yards on December 13 against the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

. The record stood until 2022, when it was broken by

T. J. Hockenson Thomas James Hockenson (born July 3, 1997) is an American football tight end for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted in the first round (eighth selection overall) of the 2019 NFL Draft by the Detroit Lio ...

's 179 yards against the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

. As of 2018, Gibbons ranks tenth on the Lions' all-time reception list with 287 receptions, 3,561 yards and 20 touchdowns. Selected to three Pro Bowls, one career highlight came in a 1960 game versus the

Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breed ...

in Baltimore. Gibbons scored the game winning touchdown on a 65-yard pass from

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Earl Morrall Earl Edwin Morrall (May 17, 1934 – April 25, 2014) was an American football player who was a quarterback (and occasional punter) in the National Football League (NFL) for 21 seasons, both a starter and reserve. In the latter capacity, he beca ...

as time expired, giving the Lions a 20–15 victory. It was the game's third lead change in the last 15 seconds of play. Gibbons died on August 20, 2016, at the age of 79 of natural causes. Gibbons' brain was donated to

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

for research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurological disorder observed in professional athletes with repeat brain trauma.Ex-Lions tight end Jim Gibbons dies at 79
/ref>

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibbons, Jim 1936 births 2016 deaths American football tight ends Iowa Hawkeyes football players Detroit Lions players Western Conference Pro Bowl players Players of American football from Chicago