Our President & Executive Director, Jerald Andrews, wrote this on the passing of St. Louis Cardinals great Bob Gibson:
I had the honor of inducting Bob Gibson in January of 1996, my first class. I recall picking up coach Hank Stram up at the airport. Bob was arriving about 15 minutes later. I told Coach that we were going to wait and get Bob. The coach responded by saying, ‘Who in the hell is Bob Gibson?’”
Well, we waited, and I get these two sports giants in the car. They start talking about what they had made and specifically what little extra they received in Super Bowls and World Series. They became good friends.
Bob was a graduate of Creighton University and an English major. He was an exceptional writer and articulate if you could get him to speak. Sports writer, Hall of Famer and Missouri Sports Legend Bob Broeg played a major role in Bob coming to Springfield induction.
In his acceptance remarks, Bob spoke of his career. He was a great athlete and had also played basketball. While he had signed with the Cardinals, he played for the Harlem Globetrotters during the offseason. The Cardinals’ general manager, Bing Devine, who we inducted that same evening, asked Gibson how much the Globetrotters were paying him. Bob told him the amount and Devine told him the Cardinals would increase his salary by that amount if he would quit playing basketball! And Gibson agreed!
He also shared how he needed glasses but never wore them while pitching. When opponents would see him off the field wearing pop bottle glasses, they would ask him about it, and he would just laugh at the fear in their eyes.
We invited him to return to Springfield to be recognized as a Legend several times, and he would jokingly say, ‘You just want me to be a pigeon roost!”
Gibson will be remembered as one of the greatest competitors that Missouri ever experienced, and I will always be grateful for the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame relationship with him.
