The NFL Draft party at Jon and Lynnae Emery’s home turned suddenly very quiet Sunday when a cell phone rang.

It was just before 1 p.m. in the afternoon, almost six hours into Day Two of the draft, when UC Berkeley offensive lineman and 2004 Napa High School graduate Mike Gibson reached for his phone and took the call.

All eyes in the room turned to Gibson, who had this to say: “Coach (Andy) Reid, how’s it going? I’m doing awesome. I’ll do my best. Thank you.”

There were cheers and applause by family and friends when Gibson (6-foot-4, 305 pounds), a two-time All-Pac-10 selection at tackle and the winner of the Ken Cotton Award as the Bears’ most courageous player, was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the sixth round.

There were also tears of joy and plenty of hugs to go around when Gibson, an All-American at Solano Community College-Fairfield and a Second-Team All-State player at Napa High, pointed to the TV for the telecast of the draft on ESPN when his named popped up on the screen.

“When he pointed to the screen, and said, ‘That’s it,’ my heart dropped, just because I know how many hours he has put into it and what he has given up for it and everything,” Gibson’ wife, Jessi said. “First hand, I know everything he’s done.”

Gibson was the 184th player taken in the draft and the 18th player chosen in the sixth round. Gibson led a group of five Cal standouts selected on day two of the draft. That group, combined with DeSean Jackson (second-round pick on day one by the Eagles), gives Cal its largest group of players drafted in seven rounds in school history.

“I’m blessed — that’s all I can say,” said Gibson, who will move to a guard position on the line. “I’ve just been blessed with my size, my speed, my athleticism. And blessed with a good family and good support system, because they’re everything to me. It’s a great feeling — I couldn’t be happier right now. I couldn’t be happier with everything that’s going on. It’s just a great feeling.

“It just takes one person to like you. I was lucky enough to have three or four teams like me. (Eagles offensive line) Coach (Juan) Castillo liked me the most, obviously, and that’s why I’m going there.”

There had been speculation that Gibson, who impressed coaches, general managers, player personnel directors and scouts at the NFL combine in February, might go to Dallas, Carolina or Washington, as they had shown the most interest, going as far to fly him out to their headquarters a couple of weeks ago for follow-up interviews.

“He’s worked so hard,” said Jessi. “I don’t think I’ve known anybody who has wanted anything more. That was his goal — I was behind him all the way. We put absolutely everything into it. It’s a dream come rue. Mike and I have been doing sports together since we were kids, and to see him do this is just amazing.

“As an athlete, I know that he’s got some special skills that I haven’t seen in a lot of players. I think that he’s going to really blow them away and I think he’s going to make a lot of teams regret not picking him up sooner. As our agent (Jim Grogan) said, the team that picked us loves us the most, and they have no idea how much we love them. He’s going to do something really big, something special.”

It was the Eagles who called Grogan early on Sunday, expressing interest.

“It was a big surprise for me, because I wasn’t expecting it at all,” said Jessi, a Napa High graduate who was named as the Tennessee Junior and Community College Athletic Association’s Eastern Division MVP for softball for Chattanooga State Technical Community College. “But that’s how it works — you never know.”

In two seasons at Cal, Gibson produced 78 knockdowns, 21 downfield blocks and 14 touchdown-resulting blocks.

He started the last 10 contests of his junior year at right tackle and helped that unit give up only 13 sacks on 413 pass plays. He recorded 24.5 knockdown blocks and played through a torn labrum, yet was named All-Pac-10 Second Team.

As a senior, Gibson earned All-Pac 10 Conference honorable mention. Shifting to left tackle, he produced 47 knockdowns and eight touchdown-resulting blocks. The team averaged 407.5 yards per game with five new starters in the offensive lineup. Gibson and his fellow blockers gave up only 11 sacks on 443 pass plays.

“One thing that I noticed at Solano right away was that he was very aggressive and very athletic, and had just a love of playing the sport,” said Vince Dell’aquila, Solano’s offensive line coach and the team’s assistant head coach. “At the pro level, I know it’s a business, but he’s going to have fun with that business. I think that they got a diamond in the rough. He’s a good kid.”

At Napa High, Gibson earned All-Monticello Empire League and All-Metro honors. He was also named as the league’s Lineman of the Year and played in the East-West Charity All-Star Football Classic.

After graduation, he enrolled at Solano. He earned All-Bay Valley Conference honors twice at offensive tackle and was named first-team All-American in 2005. He was listed as the eighth-best offensive line prospect in the junior college ranks by Super Prep and the 55th-best player in the country regardless of position by that service. JC Gridwire listed him as the 14th-best two-year player in the country and the fifth-best prospect in California. He also ranked as the 14th-best junior college player in the country by Rivals.com.

“Good things happen to good people,” said Dave Shipp, Vintage’s athletic director and former head football coach who has known Gibson since he was in elementary school. “He didn’t always have everything going for him in his life, but he did everything you’re supposed to do and really lived a clean life and has been respectful and all those kind of things.

“Philadelphia’s a great town — I think he’ll have a great time back there. It’s a great place to live. This is just great for Mike.”

Addressing those at the party, Gibson said: “Thank you, everybody, for coming out, I appreciate it. Hope you guys can come visit Philadelphia.”

Matt Geftakys, a classmate of Gibson’s at Napa High who is in the U.S. Navy, traveled all the way from Norfolk, Va., to be with his close friend.

“He’s worked so hard. If anybody deserved if, it was him,” said Geftakys. “He just kept on working his butt off. It paid off. Just to see him right now where he is, it’s amazing. All you need to do is look at him — he’s just big and strong. He will work hard and no matter what, he will try to succeed. He will go above and beyond and fight through anything that they want to put his way.

“He has a big heart — that’s one of the biggest things to playing football. Not only that — he’s gifted. He can play anything on the line. I know he’ll work as hard as he can and do what he has to do. I wouldn’t want to be any other place but with him right now, to see him as happy as he right now is and that smile — that’s worth it all.”

Gibson got an earlier call Sunday, around 12:30 p.m., from the Cowboys. They told him that they didn’t have a pick in the seventh round and wanted to sign him as a free agent.

Last year Gibson played left tackle for the Bears, who beat Air Force 42-36 in the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas. He protected Nate Longshore’s blind side and was part of a superb offensive line as Cal ran for over 2,000 yards, including nine individual 100-yard efforts.

He had the best seat in the house throughout the morning and into the afternoon. As teams made their selections, Gibson rarely took his eye off the TV, saying very little.

“It’s good to see all your friends going and to see them be successful. But at the same time, it’s frustrating because there’s some guys that you know you should go ahead of. But I want the best for them also.”

He’s looking forward to playing for the Eagles and taking part in mini camps and rookie camps next month.

“It’s going to be a good experience,” he said. “I’ve never been there. I’ve been to the snow I think only one other time in my life.

“The Eagles have a lot of tradition, which is really nice. I know it’s a really blue-collar area, which is what I am — I’m a blue-collar guy. I’ll fit in really nice in their system.”

He plans to bring the same intensity to the Eagles that he has played with on the high school and college levels.

“From what I’ve been taught through high school is to play hard, play to the whistle and play with a higher intensity than the person across from you and you’ll be successful.”

In Sunday’s cell phone call, Reid asked Gibson, “Are you ready to take a 4,000-mile flight?”

“I said, ‘I’ll do anything to get there,’ ” Gibson said.