The logo for the team that the first Arab head coach was hired by (sportslogo.net/Pinterest).
Find out who the first Arab head coach in the NFL was below! Clue: He was Arab and was a head coach in the NFL.
Ok, ok, I’ll tell you. It was Lebanese-American Abe Gibron. We will be celebrating one of the biggest trailblazers in NFL Arab American history for our final article for Arab American Heritage Month 2024. Make sure to catch the first three articles here, here, and here.
A Little About Abe
Abe Gibron was born in Michigan City, Indiana, in 1925 to Lebanese immigrant parents from Zahlé. The future head coach would start by being the captain of his high school football team at Elston High School. Even at that young age, Gibron was winning accolades, such as being named an All-Northern Indiana Athletic Conference player.
After serving his country in WWII for the Marine Corps, Abe Gibron went to college at Purdue University. While playing for three seasons, he was named an All-Big Ten Conference player and an honorable mention All-American.
Gibron was drafted twice. Once by the Buffalo Bills of the All-American Football Conference (AAFC) and the New York Giants of the NFL. The former team won, likely because the Giants disrespected Gibron with a sixth-round pick. Of course, in 1949, there were 25 rounds, so the sixth round does sound better in context.
Abe Gibron’s NFL Career
Gibron was only with the Buffalo Bills for one season. Why? The AAFC folded after the 1949 season. Abe Gibron was named second-team All-Pro by whichever reporters covered the AAFC. He was also named Rookie Lineman of the Year. The future head coach made the rest of the rookie guards look bad.
In what feels like an ethical conflict, Abe Gibron was “sold” to the Cleveland Browns along with two other players for a 25% share of the team given to the Bills former owner, James Breuil. In his first year in the NFL, Gibron’s team won the NFL Championship, the precursor of the Super Bowl that wouldn’t exist for another 17 years.
The Cleveland Browns were Gibron’s golden stage as a player. His team won the NFL championship three times in his seven seasons there. He was also named first-team All-Pro twice and second-team All-Pro once. Last but not least, he was a four-time pro bowler too.
Not quite ready to retire, Abe Gibron did go on to play for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1956 to 1957 and the Chicago Bears from 1958 to 1959, but he didn’t do anything of note for either team. A leg injury he sustained in 1956 really affected him.
Abe Gibron Starts Coaching
We’re still 12 years removed from Gibron’s career as a head coach, but we’re almost there. Because in 1960, the Abe Gibron coaching era was upon us.
He would start as an offensive line coach for Washington under two different head coaches for five seasons. In the Chicago Bears attempt to rebuild, Gibron was brought to work there as a line coach. He was good enough at his role that the Miami Dolphins actually tried to recruit him to be their head honcho in 1966. That would have changed history quite a bit. He declined the offer, though.
Head Coach Gibron
In 1970, the former guard would move from offensive line coach to defensive coordinator for two seasons. He would be made head coach in 1972, where he stayed for three seasons. During his last stint with the Bears, he actually tried his hand at acting. He played himself in a 1971 movie called Brian’s Song, a movie about Bears teammates Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers.
While he was great in a supportive role on camera and on the sidelines, as the head, he had a record of 11-30-1. Gibron would try one more time with the World Football League (WFL) in 1975, with a record of 1-4 before the franchise and then the league folded.
The career of the first Arab-American head coach in the NFL wasn’t sexy, but it didn’t have to be for him to trailblaze.
Ayed Ayoub, legal and policy director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, was quoted as saying: “Sports transcends and it can bring people together and offer a very large, very wide platform. When an Arab Muslim American succeeds in sports, that positively affects the community as a whole.”
Ayoub was speaking of Robert Saleh of the New York Jets, who is Muslim; however, the organization would stand in support of Abe Gibron too.
After his top dog days, he decided to be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator for 10 seasons. Abe Gibron’s working days finished with him being a scout for the Seattle Seahawks for five seasons from 1985 to 1989 and an advisor for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the early 90s. He retired in his late 60s after a long career in professional football.
The Personal Life of Abe Gibron
Gibron was married to his wife, Susie, and they had three children together. While he was defensive coordinator at Tampa Bay in 1976, he was inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame.
Abe and Susie Gibron experienced pain when their teenage son, James, committed vehicular manslaughter in Florida. Originally, he was charged with manslaughter as an adult despite being a minor, but that initial conviction was overturned. Instead, James Gibron got 10 years of probation and cleaned up his act, becoming a lawyer. Sometimes, life is messy for everyone.
Gibron did not have a particularly peaceful end to his life. In 1985, he went to a hospital with abdominal pain, and while there, he got diagnosed with a brain tumor that was removed with surgery. He had two back-to-back strokes in December of 1996 and February of 1997, finally succumbing to the aftermath of the strokes in September of 1997 at the age of 72.
The Head Honcho’s Legacy
Gibron may not have been a good head coach, but he was comedic gold. He was rather large (but incredibly fast) while he was a football player at 250 pounds, but he gained 50 more pounds as a head coach. His rotund appearance was the butt of jokes, which isn’t acceptable.
However, his appetite did garner some funny jokes, with player Charley Hannah of the Tampa Buccaneers being quoted as saying, “He was eating things we wouldn’t even go swimming with in Alabama.”
Rumor has it that there is a video somewhere in the world wide web of him singing Joy to the World on the sidelines in 1973. Last but not least, his ability to cuss everyone out repeatedly and passionately on the sidelines was one for the history books. No player or referee was safe with Gibron on the sidelines.
