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Summarized by Kent Larsen
LDS Track Star Dies Of Cancer
(Former Big West Hurdle Champion Dies)
Associated Press 28Mar00 P2
LOGAN, UTAH -- LDS returned missionary and champion hurdler Brooks
Gibbons died Monday on esophageal cancer at age 26. Gibbons won the
Big West conference 110-meter and 400-meter hurdles in 1995.
Gibbons was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, a condition usually
found in the elderly, in February 1998. After undergoing chemotherapy
and various operations, Gibbons managed to return to training for
three weeks in the fall of 1998, but then doctors discovered that the
cancer had spread to his liver. "Everybody has their own little
hurdles in their life," he said after his diagnosis. "Some are just a
little bit bigger than others."
He was given just three months to live, but managed to survive
another two years, which he credited to his experience as a hurdler.
In spite of his continuing battle with cancer, Gibbons managed to
complete his coursework in sociology by correspondence, receiving a
diploma March 13th in his hospital room.
Gibbons attended Ricks College for a year before serving an LDS
mission to Guam from 1993 to 1995. He returned and picked up his
hurdling, accepting a track scholarship to Utah State University.
Representing USU, Gibbons captured hurdling titles in the 110-meter
hurdles and 400-meter hurdles later that year.
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