He played third-grade rugby league at St George in 1950 before joining a social side in the Eastern Suburbs A-grade competition called Taylor's Celebrity Club.
In 1968 the team finished with a defensive record second only to eventual premiers South Sydney and again made the semi-finals, then were knocked out in week one by St George.
"[9] Over the next ten years, Gibson would turn the highly popular coaching technique of blaming the referee for his side's losses into an art form.
In club Chief-Executive Denis Fitzgerald Gibson found an ally in his remorseless approach to sledging referees and applying pressure via the media.
On 5 April 1981, Gibson dared the Referees Appointments Board to give Greg Hartley another Eels match after they lost 12–8 to Canterbury.
[10] Come finals time, Gibson continued to apply pressure when he publicly criticised the appointment of Hartley to control the Eels major semi-final clash with Eastern Suburbs.
Manly were comfortable pre-match favourites for the 1982 Grand Final having demolished Parramatta three times that season including a 20–0 drubbing in a spiteful major semi-final.
Gibson, Fitzgerald and lock-forward Ray Price again employed the tactic of publicly criticising referees and in the week leading up the match John Gocher was the target of the pressure.
Parramatta's forward pack began to dominate Manly's all international six and before half-time Brett Kenny crossed for two tries and set-up another three for Sterling, Ella and Neil Hunt to ensure a second title for the Eels.
That Parramatta could come back from the semi-final loss and defeat Easts 33–0 in the Preliminary Final was testament to the skill of Gibson and the quality of the side.
Claims that the week's rest for winning the major semi-final could work against a side surfaced again when Parramatta dismissed Manly 18–6 in the 1983 Grand Final.
He had few big-name players to work with but did an admirable job in developing a pool of local junior talent and the club eventually made the semi-finals in the two immediate years following his departure.
Gibson quit while on top to take up a role back at the Roosters in 1991 as manager with former Test halfback Mark Murray as coach.
After embracing the film and its messages and showing it to the entire St George playing roster, all three Dragons sides were unbeaten for the next seven weeks; lost just two of the remaining 14 matches; and all three grades of the club made it to their respective Grand finals that year.
He befriended San Francisco 49ers coach Dick Nolan at an NFL annual conference in 1972 and was invited to study and observe the operations of the 49ers team.
His sardonic one-liners were embraced by Australian press looking to colour their sports pages and many of his quotes are still referred to within rugby league circles.
Up until he was incapacitated, past players, coaches and journalists still telephoned him for advice or a quote, even though he hadn't been actively involved in game for some time.
Part of the code's centenary year celebrations in Australia, the elite team is the panel's majority choice for those considered to be the best of all time.
Gibson and his wife Judy became fervent in their support of charities assisting research into schizophrenia and he donated the proceeds of four books he co-wrote with Ian Heads to that cause.
Gibson died on 9 May 2008, 90 minutes before rugby league's historic Centenary Test Match, after a two-year battle with Alzheimer's disease and dementia.