Richard F. Gallagher

Richard F. Gallagher (October 28, 1909 – March 29, 1995) was a baseball, basketball and American football coach and administrator who served as an assistant with the Cleveland Browns and Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL) in the 1940s and 1950s. Gallagher also coached at high schools in his native Ohio and was the head baseball and basketball coach at the College of William & Mary in Virginia from 1946 to 1947. He spent three years as head football coach at Santa Clara University in California in the early 1950s, and ended his career by becoming the general manager of the Buffalo Bills and later the director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Gallagher grew up in Ironton, Ohio and was a star athlete in high school. He attended Kentucky Wesleyan College, where he continued to play sports. After graduation, he played briefly for the semi-professional Ironton Tanks in 1930 before starting a coaching career. He first coached in Pedro, Ohio and then at Ironton High School before getting his first college coaching job in 1940 as an assistant at William & Mary. Gallagher served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and returned to William & Mary after his discharge in 1945. He was promoted to head coach of the school's baseball and basketball programs the following year, and led the William & Mary Tribe men's basketball team to a 14–12 win–loss record in the 1946–47 season. Gallagher then joined the Browns, where he stayed for three seasons before resigning to take the head coaching job at Santa Clara. He compiled a record of 8–18–2 in three years at Santa Clara.

Gallagher subsequently returned to the Browns as a scout, and remained with the team until 1960, when he became the Bills' general manager. After six years in Buffalo, he resigned to become a scout for the San Francisco 49ers. He stayed in that job for one season before joining the Hall of Fame as the second director in its history. Gallagher retired in 1976. He died of esophageal cancer in 1995.

Early life and college

Gallagher was born and grew up in Ironton, Ohio, a town on the state's border with Kentucky along the Ohio River. He played three sports at his local Ironton High School. After graduating, he attended Kentucky Wesleyan College and played on the school's football team. He spent two years there before becoming the head football and basketball coach at Ironton High School in 1933. The Browns won the AAFC championship in each of Gallagher's years with the team.

Gallagher took a job in 1950 as head football coach at Santa Clara University in California. He also hired Ed Ulinski, another former Browns player, as an assistant coach. The Santa Clara Broncos football team had an 8–18–2 record in three seasons under Gallagher.

Gallagher resigned in late 1952 and was expected to rejoin the Browns to do scouting and personnel work. He was hired on a temporary basis to help Cleveland assistant Weeb Ewbank prepare for the NFL draft. In February 1953, however, he signed as an end coach for the NFL's Chicago Cardinals after considering a competing offer to assist Pappy Waldorf at the University of California. He spent the rest of his time working in the sales department of Luria Brothers, a steel dealer. The Browns hired him full-time the following season, promoting him to head the team's scouting department. He was given a $25,000 salary. He instead took a job as a scout and personnel executive for the San Francisco 49ers that August.

Gallagher stayed in San Francisco for less than a year, taking over in 1968 as director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio after the death of its first director, Dick McCann. He died of esophageal cancer in 1995.

Head coaching record College football

College basketball

College baseball