Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Model student-athlete continues to be high achiever BY LOU SOMOGYI one of the following on a checklist of extraordinary dreams: • Named captain on a Notre Dame T here is an extremely short list of peo- ple who have achieved any single football team. • Possesses a national title ring. • Earned an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering. • Received notice as an Academic All-American three times. • Intercepted a pass thrown by Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly — and returned it 53 yards for a touchdown. • Graduated with a master's in busi- ness administration from Harvard Uni- versity. • Serves as a CEO of a $100 million company that employs 460 people. • Married for 31 years while putting Tom Gibbons, 1977-80 Cornerback/Safety WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? Dame came calling he found his ideal combination of football and academic excellence when he enrolled in August 1977. "You have to really focus and com- partmentalize your time wisely," Gib- bons said of balancing big-time football with an aerospace engineering major. "On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I would have late afternoon labs that would make me 30 to 45 minutes late for prac- tice, but the coaches never penalized me or others on the team who were in majors like pre-med. They were 100 percent supporting us and were of the mind that we were there for school first. "I guess at times I might have felt sorry for myself because I had so many things going on at once, but anyone who is recruited to play major college football is going to be naturally excep- tionally competitive with a will to drive and succeed." Gibbons' position coach throughout two children through college already, two more next spring, with a fifth ready to embark to college. Consider 53-year-old Tom Gibbons an army of one in this world by having already checked all these off of his "to do" list. A native of Alexandria, Va., Gib- his college career was Jim Johnson, who became one of the more renowned NFL defensive coordinators in pro foot- ball history before passing away from cancer in July 2009. Johnson would take time after practice on the field and in the film room to get Gibbons caught up on his football homework. A backup corner and special teams bons was looking to enroll potentially at Stanford, Virginia or Georgia Tech, among other schools, but once Notre regular as a freshman for the 1977 na- tional champs, Gibbons started the fi- nal nine games at corner as a sopho- more in 1978 following the graduations