A midfielder who was one of the stars of the United States team at the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay, and also was a longtime star of the original American Soccer League.
Gallagher was one of the 11 men who played all three games for the United States at that first World Cup. In 1934, he faced Mexico in qualifying just before the start of the World Cup, but not Italy in the World Cup itself. Gallagher normally played on the right side of midfield, but sometimes switched to the left or played as a right-wing forward.
Gallagher, who emigrated from Scotland as a child in 1913, played for five different teams in the course of his 11-year ASL career, and won championships with J&P Coats in 1923 and New York Giants in 1931. He scored a key goal in New York’s dramatic comeback from seven goals down in the two-leg 1931 final. With New York Nationals, he won a U.S. Open Cup title in 1928 and a Lewis Cup in 1929.
The largest part of his career, six seasons, was spent with the club that began as Indiana Flooring, and was renamed New York Nationals in 1927 and New York Giants in 1931. He played a total of 349 ASL games, and scored 56 goals. After the breakup of the original ASL, Gallagher moved to Cleveland, and was playing for Slavia at the time of the 1934 World Cup.
Inducted in 1986.
