Bismarck’s Gibson makes Hall of Fame

WESSON, MS — Dr. Melvin Gibson, a 1951 graduate of Bismarck High School was inducted in 2008 into the Mississippi Community/Junior College Sports Hall of Fame as a charter member in only its second year of existence.

Gibson, upon leaving Bismarck, played basketball for Holmes Junior College in Goodman, Mississippi where he helped the Bulldogs win a state championship in 1952, and was an All-State player both years of his playing at Holmes.

From Holmes, Gibson transferred to Northeast Louisiana University where he was the Gulf State Conference leading scorer and was named to the All-Conference team both years of his eligibility.

Gibson stayed on at Northeast as an assistant coach where he received his bachelor’s degree and continued his education with a master’s at Memphis State and a doctorate at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Gibson has had an extensive teaching career, having returned to Missouri to teach at Cherryville High School and Belleview Elementary, and also teaching as well as coaching basketball at several colleges an universities in the southeast, including his alma mater at Holmes (1964-66) where he met and married Dr. Jo Anne Tucker and where their daughter Melissa Ann Eldridge was born. 

Gibson has received the honors of being; Holmes College Alumnus of the Year in 1979, inducted into the Northeast Louisiana University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Holmes Community College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993.