Michigan State football to enter Kirk Gibson's number into Ring of Honor on Saturday

EAST LANSING – Michigan State will honor Kirk Gibson’s college football accomplishments Saturday.

Gibson will serve as honorary captain for the Spartans’ game against Notre Dame (8 p.m./Fox), and the Pontiac native’s No. 23 will be unveiled in the Spartan Stadium Ring of Honor during a ceremony.

The former Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers great was an All-American wide receiver at MSU from 1975-78. Gibson will be enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame on Dec. 5 in New York City.

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“It will be great to have him involved with our football team,” MSU coach Mark Dantonio said today.

In 1978, Gibson earned first-team All-America and all-Big Ten honors with 42 catches for 806 yards and seven touchdowns. He had 112 catches for 2,347 yards and 24 touchdowns during his MSU career, and his 21.0 yards-per-catch remains No. 1 all-time at MSU. Gibson’s TD total is third all-time in school history, and his total receiving yards are fourth.

Dantonio was a defensive back at South Carolina during the same time Gibson was playing at MSU, though their paths never crossed on the football field. He said he knew of Gibson’s baseball success over the years and has gotten to know him personally since starting to coach at MSU as an assistant for Nick Saban and then as a head coach since 2006.

“I knew that he had played football and was a great player at Michigan State. But that was a little bit after he was already going on,” Dantonio said. “I knew that he was successful. I knew that that was the case and he was an outstanding player here at wide receiver and that type of thing and a big-play guy, but I learned a little bit more as I came in (as a coach).”