Jake Gibbs enrolled at the University of Mississippi in 1957. Sixty-nine years and one legendary career later, cheering for the Rebels has become a family tradition that he shares with his sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
They will continue that tradition – from Oxford and Omaha – as the Rebels return to the College World Series this week.
“For me, it goes back to 1957, when I had a choice: Mississippi State or Ole Miss,” the 87-year-old Gibbs said. “I was playing football then, so I decided I wanted to play under Coach John Vaught.
“That was the best decision I ever made.”
Gibbs played quarterback for the football Rebels and infielder for the baseball team, helping the latter to their first SEC championship in 1959. After graduating from Ole Miss, Gibbs spent 10 years and 11 seasons as a catcher for the New York Yankees before deciding to return to Oxford as a coach.
In his first season as head baseball coach, he led Ole Miss to Omaha for the 1972 College World Series.
“When we left New York, my wife and I had three sons,” he said. “They were 9, 6 and 2 years old. The reason we left was to come back home and raise a family, and that’s what we did. So, my sons, they’ve been a part of Ole Miss from their early years to now.
“They grew up here. This is their home.”
That family has grown up and around Rebel athletics and everything Ole Miss, said Detective Jake Gibbs, Gibbs’ grandson and an investigator for the Oxford Police Department.
Naturally, when back-to-back home runs clinched the Rebels’ path back to Omaha on Saturday (June 6), the Gibbs family was watching.
“We were at my uncle’s house swimming and watching the game by the pool,” Detective Gibbs said. “It was me, my kids, my wife, just a family thing. My son, Sims, he’s so excited. He’s all about Ole Miss baseball.
“But I think he’s even more excited for tomorrow, because tomorrow we’re leaving for Omaha.”
When the Rebels last went to the College World Series in 2022, Sims was only 2 years old. His father had just taken a job with the Oxford Police Department after spending his early career in Memphis.
Gibbs moved back to Oxford for the same reason his grandfather did some 60 years before.
“My wife, Mare, and I, we started our careers in Memphis, but we decided in 2022 that we wanted to move back,” he said. “All of our family is here. The kids get to grow up around their grandparents and great-grandparents. It was really a blessing.”
Gibbs decided he wanted to give his children the same experience that his parents gave him: going to Ole Miss games, being with family and making a home in Oxford.
“From the time I was a little kid and he was still coaching, I was at every game,” Detective Gibbs said. “There are pictures of me in old Swayze, right when they first re-did the stadium. I got it from my dad, but it all started with Jake.
“Growing up, I got afforded a lot of cool things because of who my grandfather was, but to me, he was just Pop. He was just my grandad.”
Now Gibbs’ children, Sims and John Ellis, 4, get have that experience, too.
“My great-grandson, it’s amazing how much he keeps up with the Rebels for a kid at 6 years old,” the elder Jake Gibbs said. “You know his father took him to the Sugar Bowl, then took him out to Phoenix for football. They pull for the Rebels, and they are Rebels, through and through.
As the Rebels travel to Omaha for the 2026 College World Series, they know there will be – as there has been for nearly 70 years – a family of Gibbs cheering them on.
“When we won (Saturday), I called Coach Bianco,” he said. “I told him there would be a Gibbs in the stands.”