Gerry Gallagher was disappointed at first. Then he grew angry.
Then, he’d had enough.
So he packed his belongings and walked out.
He ran away from home.
It was August, 1963. Gerry Gallagher was 12.
There he was, with his stuff tied up in a knapsack over his shoulder on Mount Pleasant Ave. in Rockaway. He walked up the big hill leading up towards Wharton. Destination: Who knows?
But he was serious.
Gallagher wanted to play for the Rockaway Rams, but his mom said no. How much did football mean to a young Gerry Gallagher? Enough to leave everything and everyone else behind and walk out.
That was then, of course. These days, 60 years in the sport as a player and coach later, his life consists of God, Family, and Football, in that order.
But then? Football was king. And if there was no football … well, why go on living at home?
At least, that was his mode of thinking back as a kid.
“I wanted to play, and my mother would not let us play,” he said. “This is a big part of my life. I went upstairs in my room. I packed my boy scout knapsack and I was running away from home.”
Then, his dad – and fate – intervened. His dad drove up Mount Pleasant, spotted Gerry and talked him into the family car – and off the ledge.
“He asked, ‘Where are you going?’” Gallagher recalled. “I said, ’Mom said I cannot play football, so I am running away from home.’ My dad said, ‘Get back in the car. I’ll take care of it.’”
What if Gallagher’s dad hadn’t intervened? What if Gerry’s mom got her wish?
Then hundreds and hundreds of lives in the world of high school and college football would not have been impacted so beautifully.
Gallagher loves coaching the game of football but few connect with people – players, coaches and everyone else involved — the way he does.
“Football is in my blood,” he said. “Sometimes, I think it is time to go. But then I’ll watch film or listen to other coaches talk and then I want to continue coaching. It’s what I do.
“I don’t go on vacation. I don’t golf. I don’t fish. I just love football.”
Many people are glad that he has remained on the sideline all this time.
Last week, Gallagher was awarded the Ray McCrann Award at the North-South game, which is a fitting tribute to someone who has brightened the lives of so many people – players and coaches – in his many years playing and coaching football.
“One of the things about Gerry is he doesn’t have a negative thing to say about anyone,” said retired Lenape Valley coach Don Smolyn, who presented Gallagher with the award on the field at the North-South game. “I just read that the Unabomber died. I don’t even know if Gerry would say anything bad about him!”
Gallagher’s love affair with the game continues to this day at Delbarton, where Gallagher is an assistant coach and special teams coordinator.
Gallagher lost his father that November, but then-Morris Catholic coach Dick DeMasi became his father figure. Gallagher wound up playing for DeMasi and the Crusaders and was captain of the football team as a senior.
His relationship with football had begun and so did a love affair with Pat, a Morris Catholic cheerleader who’d soon become his wife. The two celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary recently.
“The perfect football wife,” he said.
Gallagher would go on to Paterson State (now William Paterson) during the Viet Nam Era despite there being no football and no Phys Ed major for males.
“I was a lost soul,” he said. “I was going to school but I was miserable.”
Then the good news – fate intervening again — came: Paterson State announced that it would be starting a football club team and introducing Phys Ed to the male students.
Gallagher, who’d been floundering in the classroom, suddenly became a Dean’s List student. He played defensive back and running back at Paterson State. He scored the first two touchdowns in school history. The squad went 7-2.
After graduating, his first coaching job was the Morris Catholic freshman team along with future Dover coach Jerry Tardive. He was offered the job by Father McLaughlin of Morris Catholic while Gallagher worked for Center Sporting Goods in Rockaway.
The Crusaders freshman squad finished with the first winning record in many years.
Gallagher and Tardive met interesting challenges back then. They practiced down the road from the Denville-based school in the back of the Hampton Inn. There were no lines in the dirt and not much in the way of equipment, but they did have the knowledge of two men who’d become big winners and legendary coaching figures down the road.
By 1977, Gallagher was Morris Catholic’s varsity coach until 1984. He moved on to Edinboro University (Pa.) as offensive coordinator, where he began perfecting the art of the Wing-T.
He stayed there for two years and then was offered the job at St. Francis (Pa), which had never had a full-time football coach. The school had been a club program until Gallagher came along.
“It was very difficult,” he said. “We recruited a number of Morris Catholic players. We wound up going 4-5 the first year and the schedule got a lot tougher.
“One of the things about that team was that I was named a Pennsylvania official’s association coach of the year because of the change in attitude of the way the kids played the game. That was nice.”
In 1989, it was on to his college alma mater – William Paterson – where he coached until 1997. Then he cast his lot with the high school game again, this time at Montville.
He chose to move back to the high school level because he felt he had a better opportunity to reach a high school-aged athlete than a college one.
Gallagher is every bit interested in molding character as he is developing football players.
“In high school, you have a chance to impact a football player in terms of character,” he said. “In college, you’re dealing with mature athletes. Coaching is coaching, from third grade through high school, but I liked the idea of working with high school athletes more.”
He guided the Mustangs to a sectional final in Giants Stadium in 2006 and coached the school from 1997-2010.
“I loved coaching there,” he said. “Coaches knew they had to be well-prepared. We might not have been as talented but we were always well prepared. And the kids played hard. I was always proud of the kids and the entire coaching staff.”
Gallagher found his way to Boonton for two years – with his son, Bryan – and then left coaching. Or so he thought. He returned to Parsippany for two years. He left Parsippany and thought he would be done with coaching again, but that was before Delbarton scooped him up. He has been part of the Green Wave staff since 2015.
Notice a pattern? When Gallagher isn’t part of a coaching staff, another school is quick to bring him on board.
His love of the game is infectious. Gallagher has a way of passing along his love for coaching. A total of 54 ex-players or ex-assistants have become head college or high school coaches.
“Gerry is so good for the game,” Smolyn said. “He is in it for all the right reasons. He just makes you feel good being around him.”
