Gibbs family: A heartfelt tale of father and son

Shyquan Gibbs’ career as a college basketball player came to an end in March, when the talented point guard played in his school record-setting 125^th straight game for the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Gibbs started the last 108 of those consecutive games for the Highlanders. He scored 818 points, collected 246 assists and added 109 steals during his tenure at the Newark school.

More importantly, Shyquan’s academic record is impeccable. Gibbs was the valedictorian of the St. Anthony High School Class of 2016, was a three-time member of the Atlantic Sun Conference All-Academic team and twice was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America District team. Gibbs earned his degree in business administration in just three years at NJIT and is currently working toward a Master’s degree.

That was enough to make his father Shelton very proud.

You see, Shelton Gibbs was a college basketball standout in his own right. He went from Snyder High School in Jersey City, where he played with some of the greatest players in the history of the school, people like Rafael Addison, who had a great career at Syracuse and ended up in the NBA and the late Clarence “Boo-Bee” Richardson, whose legend just grew and grew during his high school days, especially when he shattered a backboard with a ferocious dunk before the late Darryl Dawkins earned a reputation for bringing down baskets in the NBA.

After Shelton Gibbs graduated from Snyder, he headed up north on Kennedy Boulevard, where he landed at St. Peter’s College. Along the way, Shelton never let a speech impediment -- a pronounced stutter -- stop him from his basketball hopes and dreams.

There might have been an educator could have relegated Shelton at an early age to special education classes because of his troubles speaking. Such a determination would have put a stranglehold on Gibbs’ progress in the educational system.

Shelton Gibbs would have none of that. He totally overcame his personal strife to become a college student/athlete with no restrictions whatsoever.

The elder Gibbs downright flourished at “Harvard on the Boulevard,” where he played from 1981 through 1985. When Gibbs graduated from SPC in 1985, he had helped the transformation of the Peacocks into a power in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Under the guidance of the late coach Bob Dukiet, Shelton Gibbs scored 1,688 points in his career, averaging close to 16 points per contest. Gibbs’ point total was the school record at the time and remains the No. 4 scoring total in school history, a mark that has now been obliterated by Keydren “Kee-Kee” Clark’s total of 3,058.

After graduating from St. Peter’s in 1985, Gibbs became a Hudson County probation officer and he became an assistant basketball coach at his alma mater of Snyder. He eventually became the head coach at Snyder and has remained there for the last 15 seasons.

So basketball has been a huge part of the Gibbs family for a long time. Gibbs’ older son, also named Shelton, played at St. Anthony and was on the team in 2004 that went undefeated (32-0) en route to the ninth of St. Anthony’s unprecedented 14 NJSIAA Tournament of Champions titles.

Basketball was the blood that flowed through the Gibbs’ collective veins, Shelton and his boys. It was always part of the boys’ lives.

 Shyquan Gibbs (left) and Shelton Gibbs

“Not everyone was lucky enough to have that for a family,” Shyquan Gibbs said. “Having my Dad around was good enough for me for sure. My Dad would take me to the gym with him at Snyder when I was a little boy and he would work with me after hours. He would stay in the gym with me, working on my game.”

When he became old enough, Shyquan started to play at the Jersey City Boys and Girls Club, where he was under the guidance of Robert Cole, the father of R.J. Cole, who was a star at St. Anthony and later Howard University. After sitting out a year due to transfer rules, R.J. Cole is set to play this upcoming season for Danny Hurley at UConn.

Having role models like his older brother of 12 years, his father and Coach Cole, Shyquan was definitely well on the road to success.

“They definitely put so much discipline in my life,” Shyquan Gibbs said. “They established my work ethic. I knew I had to work hard for everything in life. It was great having that in the house. I always had two people to look up to at home. My Dad and my brother were great role models and had a great impact on me.”

Through it all, Shelton Gibbs mentored his son, nurtured him and sent him down the proper path.

But Shelton believes a lot of Shyquan’s development – both on and off the court -- came from within.

“It has always been a blessing to watch him grow,” Shelton Gibbs said of Shyquan. “He always listened to me and listened to his coaches. When I watched him, it was almost like me being reborn again. It’s like we turned back the hands of time. It reminds me of playing in front of my Mom and Dad.”

Shyquan Gibbs has only seen tapes of his father in action for the Peacocks.

“For sure, growing up, people would always tell me stories about my Dad,” Shyquan said. “But besides being a great player, I’d have people tell me how, as a probation officer, my Dad changed their lives, that he helped to shape their lives for the better.”

As he developed as a player and learned about life, Shyquan Gibbs had plenty of guidance at home.

“Those are the ones I looked up to,” Gibbs said of his father and brother. “They were my pillars. They both wanted me to be the best in the family. Yes, it was a blessing. I think the most important life lesson my Dad taught me was to be a good person. He said that being a good person could go a long way in life. He taught me to always treat people with respect. That was the best piece of advice he gave me.”

And there was no question where Shyquan Gibbs would go to high school.

“I think I knew since I was a little kid that I was going to go to St. Anthony’s like my brother did,” Shyquan Gibbs said. “So getting to play for Coach (Bob) Hurley (the Naismith Hall of Famer) wasn’t a culture shock for me. I had structure in my life from my Dad and Coach Cole, so getting Coach Hurley to teach me just kept me on the straight and narrow. Both my Dad and Coach Hurley are very similar in that aspect.”

And the Hall of Famer paid Shyquan the ultimate compliment.

“He said that I was the only one that he never kicked out of practice,” Shyquan Gibbs said. “I’ll take that distinction.”

Shyquan said that playing for Hurley was the ultimate preparation for college basketball. After all, Hurley helped to mold so many guards during his nearly five decades at St. Anthony, including his own two sons Bobby, the Duke All-American now coaching at Arizona State, and Danny, who played at Seton Hall and is now the head coach at UConn.

“I think dealing with that intensity that comes for playing for Coach Hurley got me ready to play at a Division I program,” Shyquan said.

Incredibly, those four years at NJIT came to a close in March. The time flew by. From a personal standpoint, I was privileged to serve as the public address announcer for almost every one of Shyquan’s home games at NJIT. Every game started with a fist bump between player and announcer, a sign that Jersey City was in the house at the tremendously magnificent $110 million Wellness and Events Center.

“Time waits for no man,” Shyquan Gibbs said. “It will have a different feel not being on the court every day next season.”

But Gibbs will have a Master’s degree in business next month. Maybe the time has come for the young man to put his education to work and not his basketball skills.

“Eventually the ball had to stop bouncing,” Shyquan said.

“He’s the first in the family with a Master’s,” Shelton Gibbs said. “His brother and sister (Shellyse, who played basketball at McNair Academic) have degrees. Shyquan has his Master’s. It’s been a blessing to watch him play. It’s funny, when Shyquan and Shelton played for St. Anthony’s, I tried to get to every game, but I ran back and forth between games and my games. And I was the only Dad who had two sons who had 32-0 records.”

Truer words were never spoken, because even Hurley’s sons couldn’t lay claim to that.

“I’m proud of him because he was able to get his work done and then play basketball,” Shelton Gibbs said. “He knew education came first. He took a lot of pride in getting good grades. Ever since he was in grammar school, he was determined to do well.”

And the pride just oozes sweetly out of Shelton Gibbs’ lips, out of a mouth that sometimes struggles to communicate his feelings.

“He’s just a great kid,” Shelton Gibbs said. “He’s excelled and keeps excelling. He’s very humble and very respectful. And I’m lucky to have him as my son.”

And the two will celebrate this weekend, because after all, it’s Father’s Day and this will be Shelton Gibbs’ day for raising such an incredible young man, using basketball as a guiding light.