1. Abraham Gibron was an American professional football player and coach.
41 Facts About Abe Gibron
1. 2.
Abe Gibron played 11 seasons as a guard in the All-America Football Conference and National Football League in the 1940s and 1950s, mostly with the Cleveland Browns.
3.
Abe Gibron was then hired as an assistant coach for the NFL's Washington Redskins and Chicago Bears before becoming head coach of the Bears between 1972 and 1974.
4.
Abe Gibron grew up in Indiana, where he was a standout athlete in high school.
5.
Abe Gibron later transferred to Purdue University, where he played football for two years with the Boilermakers and was named an All-Big Ten Conference guard.
6.
Abe Gibron was named to the Pro Bowl, the NFL's all-star game, each year between 1952 and 1955.
7.
Abe Gibron served first as a line coach for the Redskins for five years, and then in a similar role for the Bears beginning in 1965.
8.
Abe Gibron rose to become Bears' defensive coordinator in the early 1970s, and was named head coach in 1972, replacing Jim Dooley.
9.
Abe Gibron was fired in 1974, and spent the following year as coach of the Chicago Winds, a team in the short-lived World Football League.
10.
Abe Gibron stayed close to the game by serving as a scout for the Seattle Seahawks in the late 1980s and as an advisor to the Buccaneers in the early 1990s.
11.
Abe Gibron died after suffering a series of strokes in 1997.
12.
Abe Gibron was born in Michigan City, Indiana to Lebanese immigrant parents from Zahle, and attended Elston High School.
13.
Abe Gibron was the captain of his high school football team and was named an All-Northern Indiana Athletic Conference player.
14.
Abe Gibron left the military as the war ended in 1945 enrolling at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana.
15.
Abe Gibron was named an All-Conference guard and was an honorable mention Little College All-American.
16.
Abe Gibron transferred to Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana in 1946.
17.
Abe Gibron played there between 1946 and 1948, making the varsity team twice.
18.
Purdue had a losing record in each of those years, but Abe Gibron was named an All-Big Ten Conference player and an honorable mention All-American.
19.
Abe Gibron was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the first round of a secret draft held in 1948 by the All-America Football Conference.
20.
Abe Gibron was selected as a second-team All-Pro by sportswriters after the season and was named the AAFC's rookie lineman of the year.
21.
Abe Gibron, who was unusually quick for his large size, was selected to play in the Pro Bowl, the league all-star game, after the season.
22.
Abe Gibron was named to the Pro Bowl both of those years and was a first-team All-Pro in 1955.
23.
Abe Gibron played part of the 1956 season for the Browns, but he suffered a leg injury and was cut in November to make room on the roster for rookie Don Goss.
24.
Abe Gibron finished his playing career with the Chicago Bears, who signed him in 1958.
25.
Over his 11-season career, Abe Gibron played in 116 games and started 109 of them, all in his first season in Buffalo.
26.
Shortly after Abe Gibron ended his playing career, Washington Redskins head coach Mike Nixon hired him as his line coach.
27.
Abe Gibron was seen as a successful coach, and was courted in 1966 to be head coach of the Miami Dolphins of the American Football League but turned down the offer.
28.
Abe Gibron switched to coaching the defensive line the following year when assistant coach Joe Fortunato resigned and Jim Ringo was hired to coach the offensive line.
29.
Abe Gibron was fired two days after the final game of the 1974 NFL season.
30.
Abe Gibron was hired in 1976 as a defensive line coach with the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but was switched to defensive coordinator that March before returning to serve as line coach in later years.
31.
Abe Gibron had been a college teammate of Bucs head coach John McKay at Purdue.
32.
Abe Gibron stayed in Tampa for seven seasons until McKay retired in early 1985 and was replaced by Leeman Bennett.
33.
Abe Gibron then served as a scout for the Seattle Seahawks by head coach Chuck Knox, and was accused later in the year of spying on the Cincinnati Bengals and attempting to steal their signals.
34.
Abe Gibron stayed on as a scout until 1989, and later worked as an advisor to Bucs coach Sam Wyche.
35.
Abe Gibron weighed about 250 pounds during his playing career, but quickly ballooned to over 300 pounds as a coach.
36.
Abe Gibron played himself in the critically acclaimed 1971 TV movie Brian's Song, the story of Chicago Bears teammates Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers.
37.
Abe Gibron eventually got 10 years of probation and went on to become a lawyer in Florida.
38.
Abe Gibron was taken to the hospital in 1985 with severe abdominal pains and later had surgery to remove a brain tumor.
39.
Abe Gibron suffered strokes in December 1996 and February 1997 that confined him to his home for the remainder of his life.
40.
Abe Gibron died at home in Belleair, Florida, the day after his 72nd birthday.
41.
Abe Gibron was inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1976.