Ole Miss, SEC honors Newton's Gibbon
By By Marty Stamper / EMG sports assistant
March 7, 2002
Joe Gibbon of Newton is one of 12 Basketball Legends to be honored during this year's Southeastern Conference Basketball Tournament at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
Gibbon will represent Ole Miss where he is still the Rebels' sixth all-time career scoring leader with 1,601 points. Gibbon played forward for the Rebels from 1954-57.
In 1957, Gibbon's 30.1 scoring average was the second-highest in the nation and still ranks eighth in SEC history for single-season scoring average.
His 14.1 rebounding average in 1957 remains the best in Ole Miss history.
Gibbon was named to the 1957 Helms Foundation All-America first team. He was also Associated Press honorable mention All-America and United Press second team All-America.
He was drafted by the Boston Celtics in the 1957 NBA Draft, but went on to play Major League Baseball with stints with the Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds, and Houston Astros.
He was named to the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1979 and was inducted into the Ole Miss Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988.
Ironically, former Hickory High School teammate Denver Brackeen was Ole Miss' Basketball Legend at the 2001 SEC Tournament.
Other members of the 2002 class of the Chick-fil-A Southeastern Conference Basketball Legends are former Mississippi State guard Jeff Malone, former Georgia forward Dominique Wilkins, former Alabama center Leon Douglas, former Arkansas guard Ron Brewer, former Auburn center Bobby Cattage, former South Carolina guard Skip Harlicka, former Tennessee guard Tony White, former Vanderbilt coach Roy Skinner, former Florida forward Chip Williams, former Kentucky forward/center Cotton Nash, and former LSU forward/center Ricky Blanton.
The group spent Wednesday night at the SEC Tip Off Banquet.
Gibbon said he got to meet SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer at the banquet.
Each legend will be recognized at halftime of his institution's first game at the tournament. Ole Miss' first game will be at 8:45 tonight against South Carolina.
The legends will also be honored as a group during pregame festivities before the first semifinal game on Saturday at noon.
