Kentville Olympian, boxing hall-of-famer to be celebrated with art mural
Recognition event, unveiling planned for May 26
ACanadian boxing hallof-famer from Kentville is being recognized for his contributions to the sport and his community.
An event to celebrate the life and boxing career of Bryan
Kentville Gibson will be held at the Public Garden next to the Kings Arms Pub on May 26 at 4 p.m. If it’s raining, the event will be held in the Crossed Keys Room, located upstairs at the Kings Arms Pub.
The May 26 celebration will feature the unveiling of a mural by artist and event organizer Jaimie Peerless, who produced the piece with help from a group of friends.
Now 74, Gibson admits to being rather shy and humble by nature. He feels “rather shocked” and “amazed” that Peerless, who he coached in the past, came up with the idea. However, he said he appreciates it.
Over the years, Gibson met many celebrities from the boxing world and other sports through connections he made. Although he has countless other accomplishments and contributions to his credit, perhaps most notable is that Gibson represented Canada in boxing at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.
SACRIFICING FOR SUCCESS
Gibson’s second child was born four days before the opening ceremonies. He said it was a great experience getting to represent his country through the sport he loves, but it didn’t come without a lot of sacrifice.
“It was great being there, that part, but it was difficult getting there because of what I had to go through and I’m lucky my wife never left me,” Gibson said.
He didn’t have any financial support from the government and had to take leaves of absence from work to travel and compete in places including Mexico, Bermuda, Miami, Milwaukee, East Berlin and other destinations.
Gibson said a lot of people he has met have no idea that he is an Olympian, and he doesn’t go around pointing it out. However, it always made him feel good when people in the Kentville area recognized him and told him they were proud of him for what he accomplished and for being where he is from.
Gibson said his wife, Teresa Ann, was always his main supporter and was the one who encouraged him to start Kentville’s Evangeline Trail Boxing Club. She was also an accredited boxing official who went to national competitions on many occasions. She passed away about a year and three months ago.
Gibson started the club in the mid-1980s after he and his family moved back from Montreal. For the first couple of years, he operated out of the trunk of his car and visited local schools. The club then moved into the downstairs of the Kentville Recreation Centre, adjacent to town hall, and it’s been there ever since.
LESSONS LEARNED
Gibson has had hundreds of
students from across Canada come through his doors over the years, some who went on to compete internationally and nationally at the Canada Winter Games.
“I was in four Canada Winter Games, three as a coach and one as an official,” said Gibson, who is a Level 5 boxing coach and a Level 4 referee and judge.
He said it always made him proud that many people involved in boxing could spot an Evangeline Trail Boxing Club member from their technique and in-ring style.
Gibson said a participant gets out of the sport what they’re willing to put into it.
Boxing is all about setting and achieving goals. He said you’re not going to win every bout, but a loss can serve as a great learning experience that you can turn into a win in the long run.
He said boxing is something that you have to want to do and there’s no better way to get in shape. It takes cardiovascular conditioning and a great deal of endurance. It’s a technical sport that involves training your mind and body to work as one.
He said it can be an isolated, lonely sport in the sense that you’re training and competing alone. A fighter can get nervous going out to box in front of a crowd, but he always found that the butterflies went away as soon as the bell rang. At that point, you have to focus and shut everything else out.
Gibson has been driving a school bus for more than 13 years now, a job he began after retiring from Michelin in 2008. He worked for Michelin for 31 years after working eight years for Bell.
GIBSON A FATHER FIGURE
Jaimie Peerless, who is also a web designer and co-owner and marketing manager for Phantom Effects, said the art installation will highlight Gibson’s commitment to athletic excellence and his contributions to the young people of the community.
Peerless said Gibson has provided a safe haven and space for many young people in the Kentville area who needed that, and he touched many lives in the process. He has also served as a vocal advocate for women’s boxing.
Peerless said she’s known Gibson since 2000, when she joined a women’s boxing fitness class that he was facilitating. She then decided to begin boxing competitively.
Peerless trained with Gibson for two and a half years and said she always stayed in touch with him after that. She said she’d often tag along to training camps involving Gibson, Jennifer Holleman — who is another close friend of Peerless, and other coaches. She said she came to consider Gibson somewhat of a father figure.
“Because she (Holleman) was always doing competitive circuits, we were always intertwined with Bryan. He was either a referee or a coach,” Peerless said.
Peerless moved back to Kentville in 2013 after living in Halifax for 10 years and said her friendship with Gibson picked up where it left off.
Peerless considers herself “Kentville proud” and has “a huge appreciation” for everything that Gibson has contributed and accomplished. She said the mural would serve as an educational tool and she is very excited to see Gibson being celebrated.
HELP AND SUPPORT
Peerless and her friends have invested a lot of time and effort into the mural project, but she said it’s well worth it and Gibson deserves the recognition. Her plans to honour Gibson with an art piece began in 2019.
Peerless said it took her about two months to draw out the mural concept. She and the “haunteer family” from Phantom Effects were still working on the mural at the time of being interviewed in late April.
She said the mural wouldn’t have been possible without a great deal of help, support and community involvement. Former Kings County councillor Pauline Raven helped connect her with several funding sources.
In addition to the team from Phantom Effects, the project is being supported by the Valley African Nova Scotian Development Association (VANSDA); Kings Arms Pub owner Joey Murphy; African Nova Scotian Affairs (ANSA); the Fagan and VanZoost families; Valley Art Map (an initiative of the County of Kings); and the Town of Kentville.
The Bryan Gibson celebration event will feature master of ceremonies Mike Butler; select speakers; and a lineup of musical performers including Mark Riley, Ryan Roberts and Juanita, Aleta and Kiana MacDonnell.