Notre Dame awards Jim Gibbons, ultimate man behind the scenes, first-ever service honor

In baseball terms, Jim Gibbons has pretty much been a five-tool player while serving and representing his alma mater, the University of Notre Dame.

The Chicago native was a two-sport star in the early 1950s … an assistant coach for both basketball and baseball in the 1960s … and the director of special events and protocol and an assistant vice president in University Relations during his more than 43 years with Notre Dame.

He could do it all. He taught former Indiana governor and South Bend mayor Joe Kernan how to slide … helped Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski with his swing … recruited basketball standout and future Notre Dame president Edward "Monk" Malloy … entertained incoming freshmen, major donors and heads of state … helped with Mass for retired priests … and served as a right-hand man for the late Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh for more than a quarter of a century.

Heck, Jim once even hit a length-of-the-court basket for the Irish to beat the halftime buzzer against Bradley.

But he was anything but a “long shot” when the Notre Dame Monogram Club recently went searching for a recipient for its first annual Jesse Harper Award, which honors service to the university, community and youth.

The club figured Jim had a lot in common with Harper, a three-sport coach at Notre Dame (and Knute Rockne’s mentor) who was known for his good works and his dedication to student-athletes. Harper also started the Monogram Club 100 years ago.

It was a splendid honor for Jim, who has had his share of health problems in recent years. He has battled back from cancer and a life-threatening bout with pneumonia in the fall while now facing the challenges of Parkinson’s disease.

“The award is a huge surprise and very satisfying,” Jim says. “I’ve gotten so many wonderful letters from across the country.”

A modest man, Jim isn’t sure he deserves all the accolades he is receiving. “My mom had a saying that I now use for times like this: ‘It may not be true, but it sure sounds good,’” he says with a chuckle.

“Jim Gibbons is one of the silent legends of Notre Dame,” former Notre Dame basketball coach Digger Phelps adds.

He was mainly behind the scenes on the administrative side but he was the one who made events and celebrations run like a well-oiled machine. He did his job so well that people called him Mr. Manners and he was even offered a position in Washington, D.C., by President Gerald Ford. (He respectfully turned it down.)

Jim, now 86 and retired since 1999, grew up wanting to be a professional baseball player, signing with the Philadelphia Phillies after graduating from Notre Dame in 1953. But when future Hall of Famer Frank Robinson hit a colossal home run (“that still may be rolling”) off him in a minor league game, he started getting the idea that coaching might be a better way of staying in sports.

After two years in the Army and a year at his old school, Mount Carmel High on the south side of Chicago, he returned to Notre Dame. He would have been a likely candidate to replace his aging mentors, head basketball coach John Jordan and baseball coach Jake Kline.

Then bleeding ulcers that eventually led to a cardiac arrest changed his career. But not his employer. After his recovery, he went from the athletic department to the Main Building.

“And there I got to work with my hero, Father Hesburgh,” he says. “What an honor.”

Jim didn’t have to give up his role in sports totally. He was a longtime high school and college basketball official and also a TV analyst for several years.

When he retired from Notre Dame, he continued to help others: volunteering several days per week at Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center and helping the retired priests at Holy Cross House in any way he could — he assisted at Father Hesburgh’s last Mass.

And now? “I just try to get everything out of today,” says Jim, who with wife, Betty Ann, has four children, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. “I never worry about tomorrow.”

He goes to therapy three times per week, still visits the elderly priests and has lunch once each week with the ROMEOs (really old men eating out), a group that includes Irish legend Ara Parseghian, former Notre Dame sports information director Roger Valdiserri and Elkhart businessman and Notre Dame supporter Art Decio.

Jim says he is hanging in there. “Fran McDonald (of McDonald Physical Therapy) has told me not to overdo it,” he admits.

That isn’t easy for a man who can’t rest a minute when it comes to wanting to help others.

Bill Moor is a Tribune columnist. Contact him at: ern14est@yahoo.com.