Tusculum professor Dr. Dale Gibson joins board of Progress Avenue group

A Tusculum College professor has become the sole academic figure on the board of a new organization designed to “observe and monitor media sources – including print, online and television – and provide an archive of information about philanthropic, charity and community efforts in and using sports.”

Dr. Dale Gibson, professor of physical education and chair of the PE Department, was officially notified at the end of October of his placement as a member of the Board of Directors of Progress Avenue, an organization that Gibson describes as “concentrating on the positives of athletics and athletes.”

The mission of the organization harmonizes with Tusculum College’s own mission. Progress Avenue seeks “to inspire and motivate people, regardless of their connection to sports, to get involved in their own community, and to be a resource of information for individuals who are already involved in their own communities,” according to its web site.

Gibson said that America’s sports community has embraced Progress Avenue, with groups such as the National Football League involving themselves.

Prior to coming to Tusculum in 2004, Gibson was men’s basketball coach at Virginia’s Liberty University, formerly Lynchburg Baptist College. After leaving coaching, he served as a professor at Liberty, where he started the school’s Sport Management program.

As a coach, he served as the first assistant basketball coach at Liberty University beginning with the program’s launch in 1972. In 1978, he was named the school’s third-ever men’s basketball head coach. In his second season, he led Liberty’s Flames to a national championship in the National Christian College Athletic Association.