Supercoach. The Life And Times Of Jack Gibson

Cover Type: Softcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Jacket Condition: None Issued
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Publisher Place: Australia
Publisher Year: 2011
Edition: First Edition

Description: 312 pages. Book is in Very good condition throughout.

Publishers Description: Like most of the bouncers in town Bobby Lee was an aging boxer, but he was also as tough as they come. He was the muscle on the door at Thommos, the illegal two-up game held in secrecy in Surry Hills in Sydneys inner city. It was owned by Joe Taylor"The Boss," as everyone called him. In the early hours of May in 1951, Bobby Lee was shot five times. He didnt survive. Jack Gibson got his job. "Big Jack" was the original Supercoach, but before that he was one of the toughest men in Sydney. It was there for all to see as a brutal front-row forward for Easts, Newtown and Wests during the 1950s and 1960s. As a coach, he was a revolutionary, adopting methods from American football and innovating heavily in his own right to win back-to-back premierships with Eastern Suburbs in 1974 and 1975, and then three with Parramatta from 1981 to 1983giving the Eels their their first ever premiership win. Yet behind his gruff exterior and his trademark kangaroo fur coat was a generous and warm family man, whose life was changed forever after the death of his son Luke from a drug overdose. With the cooperation of Jacks family and friends, and unprecedented access to Jacks scrapbooks, journals, and private photographs, Andrew Webster has written the definitive account of the Coach of the Century, Jack Gibson.

ISBN: 9781742378091