Mike Gibson treated journalism as a career in entertainment

MIKE GIBSON 1940–2015

Journalist Mike "Gibbo" Gibson tried all forms of media in his working life. He wrote for newspapers, including the Herald, and magazines, he did radio, but, best of all, he did television. He became one of the best liked and well-respected sports reporters of his generation, but could just as easily turn his hand to writing about life at home, the cat in the dishwasher, being an early proponent of a republic and still writing with pen and paper.

He could talk sport until the horses raced home, "You've got action, drama [in sport]. You've got winners, you've got losers. Everything." Yet, he didn't think his job was the be-all and end-all of existence. "Journalism is entertainment. If you inform people along the way, that's a plus. If you want to learn something, you read a book or watch the ABC."

There were good days and bad days. He was known for using good-fashioned expressions such as "By jingo" and "By Golly", but once got into trouble for saying, off the cuff on television, that German ice-skater Katarina Witt was "a good sort", by 1988 that sort of remark was not acceptable. Later it amused him to have been called a "national disgrace" in Federal Parliament over the incident.

Michael Gibson was born in 1940 and grew up in North Sydney listening to the radio – convinced that all those people, including Don Bradman and the Australian cricket team, lived inside the large machine in the corner. He went to North Sydney Boys High and, as a teenager, met his first wife, Helen, at a tram stop. Despite family opposition, they were married when she was 16 and he was 19. Gibson once claimed they were so young that they got into Luna Park's Coney Island for half price on their honeymoon, and for years afterwards wrote about her as the "child bride".

When he got married, Gibson had a scholarship to study law but he knew that wasn't for him and got a job as a copy boy on a Sydney newspaper, and was soon a cadet journalist, spending Saturday afternoons working at the dog racing track.

He had been besotted with sport since childhood – his dream was to win the Wimbledon doubles with Ken Rosewall – but he was still ready, willing and able to write about almost anything, from show business to personalities around Sydney to the best Father's Day present a man could get (one of his daughters coming home after four years in London).

He even started in radio behind behind the mike, writing scripts for other announcers. It wasn't until the late 1970s that he had a voice of his own, on 2SM, chatting, playing music, doing a few interviews.