Interview with Mel Gibson, May 9, 2007
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University of North Carolina Wilmington Archives and Special Collections Interview with Mel Gibson, May 9, 2007 Title: Interview with Mel Gibson, May 9, 2007 Date: May 9, 2007 Description: Mr. Melvin L. ("Mel") Gibson describes his career at UNCW and elsewhere in this visual oral history interview. A North Carolina native, Mr. Gibson played basketball in high school and earned a grant in aid to play at Western Carolina University. He graduated in 1963 and had the opportunity to play in the Pan American games. Mr. Gibson played professional basketball for a year and then turned to coaching. While coaching at Baptist College (Charleston, SC), Mr. Gibson met Coach Brooks, who recruited him to UNCW in 1972. After one year as the assistant coach, he became head basketball coach. Mr. Gibson discusses his coaching philosophy, his teaching philosophy (he taught in physical education and health throughout his career), and Mr. Brooks' leadership in getting UNCW a spot in the CAA. Mr. Gibson also reminisces about former players and colleagues. He stepped down from coaching in 1986, but continued as a faculty member until his retirement in 2000. Repository: UNCW Archives and Special Collections Transcript: Interviewee: Gibson, Melvin L.Interviewer: Riggins, AdinaDate of Interview: 5/9/2007Series: Voices of UNCWLength: 65 minutes Riggins: Hello, my name is Adina Riggins. I'm the UNCW archivist. I'm behind the camera here. I have in front of the camera a very special and welcome guest here at University Archives, somebody who's going to be contributing in oral history interview to the archives. Today is May 9th, 2007. We're in Randall Library and please, Mr. Gibson, can you state your full name for the tape please. Gibson: Okay. Full name is Melvin L. Gibson but I prefer Mel and I have a lot of conflict with that name since it also belongs to a more famous personality than me but I still go by Mel Gibson and Interview with Mel Gibson, May 9, 2007 Page 1 University of North Carolina Wilmington Archives and Special Collections most people know me by that name. Riggins: Sounds good. I won't ask you about Australia or anything like that. Gibson: No, no. (laughter) Riggins: Thank you. We're here today to talk to Mr. Gibson about your time on the faculty and staff of UNCW. We start off, though, by asking about your time before UNCW ever was around. Can you tell us where you were born and where did you grow up? Gibson: Okay. I was born in a very small town in North Carolina. Actually, my history is kind of unique. I was born in the central part of the state, Cordova, to be official. It's a little mill village outside of Rockingham, North Carolina, which is in the center part of the state. I went to school in the western part of the state and then I lived most of my life here in the eastern part and I save the best for last so this is where I belong and I have enjoyed my route along the way. I grew up and played at Rockingham High School before it consolidated into Richmond County High School. Was very fortunate to be athletic and played sports there, all sports, and was fortunate enough to get a scholarship, an athletic grant and aid to Western Carolina University and that's where I spent my undergraduate and my graduate years. Riggins: Rockingham, is there a race track there now? Gibson: That's the race track. That was after I came along but it is now known as a NASCAR circuit race track and that's a big deal there. I haven't seen a race there so I'm not into racing but I understand a lot of people are and it's very popular and that is a popular race track. Riggins: Draws people to that part of the state along with the North Carolina Zoo. Gibson: Yes, not far from there. Right. Riggins: I haven't heard of the town where you were born. Gibson: No, you haven't and it's very small. It's, like, five miles outside of Rockingham toward Cheraw, South Carolina, right on the line there. It's a real small village and just an elementary school there. Actually, I went to grades one through eight there. I guess you would also call that middle school. Then went to Rockingham High School nine through 12. Riggins: A very small town. Interview with Mel Gibson, May 9, 2007 Page 2 University of North Carolina Wilmington Archives and Special Collections Gibson: Yeah, very small. In fact, Rockingham was small when I was there but we were very good in football and it was known as a football school. We played in the state championship my senior year. Later, they won the state championship there so they're very good in that sport. Riggins: Wow, did you play football there? Gibson: I played basketball only. My basketball coach would have shuddered if I thought about going out for football in collage but I was on a basketball grant and aid and played four years at Western Carolina. My last year there, we were very fortunate in having a very good team and actually won at the end of the season to qualify for-- that was Small College back then was NAIA and we won our district and went on to play in the national tournament and won four straight games there and got beat in the finals so we were runner up for the national championship in NAIA and it got me seen by a lot of people and I think had a lot to do with my good fortune of being drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round later in the spring, after that winter that we did so well in basketball. Riggins: That's amazing. If we can go back to-- so you were at Coleen the early '60s or... Gibson: Yes, I went there in '59. I had graduated from high school in '59 and entered in the fall of '59 at Western and graduated in '63. Then I went to work teaching and coaching in the Charlotte Mecklenburg System after a year of professional basketball. I could see that my future wasn't that great in professional basketball so I started teaching and coaching in Charlotte and was going back with my wife, having gotten married previous to that, going back in the summers to get my master's degree and succeeded in doing that in three summers during '66, '67, '68. Riggins: Okay. Wow. Well, you're kind of skipping over a lot here so I just want to go back and ask some about when you were at Western Carolina. Was basketball big there? I mean, it's a small college... Gibson: Cullowhee, we used to make jokes about Cullowhee. When you went into Cullowhee, you had to set your watch back 10 years because it was pretty remote, about 52 miles west of Ashville. Most people know Ashville. This is before all the interstates. Later, of course, I-40 came into being but this was back when it was all two lanes and very long ride between Rockingham and Cullowhee but football and basketball were the big sports there but basketball was most notable, I would think. Riggins: At that time... Interview with Mel Gibson, May 9, 2007 Page 3 University of North Carolina Wilmington Archives and Special Collections Gibson: We excelled in that and they were before I got there and we were when I was there and they were when I left there. It's changed since because they have gone up to a division 1 level and, of course, that's a very competitive level but it was very quaint, very small, a lot like UNC Wilmington when I first came here. When I first went to Western Carolina, they had less than 2,000 students and they're 10 plus thousand there now and growing rapidly, like we are here at UNC Wilmington. Riggins: Okay. So you were drafted to play in L.A. Gibson: I was drafted and really had, if I can back up a little bit more than that, I hadn't done so well in the national tournament. I was invited to participate in the tryouts for the Pan-American team, which is sort of, like, one step below the Olympic team. The Pan-American games are North and South America and all the countries in Central America and so on and so I was very fortunate to play in the Pan-American games in the summer of '63. After graduating, we went to San Paulo, Brazil, and played in San Paulo and Rio Di Janeiro. The tournament was in those two cities and that was quite an experience because I was there for several weeks and we won the Pan-American games, which made it even sweeter for us. And I had the opportunity there playing for one of the coaches, he was one of the assistant coaches, and I had the opportunity, after he saw me play, of going to play in what they call the AAU which is the Amateur Athletic Union, and I could have gone to play for Akron, Akron Goodyear. You also get into a supervisory position but you play basketball six months out of the year and then you train in the profession for the other six months. But, after being drafted number two by the Lakers, I opted to take that chance and go and so I did play for the Lakers that one year.