Joe Gallagher, right, coached the St. John’s basketball team for 44 years, leading the Cadets to an 870-292 record and imparting long-lasting lessons on thousands of fellow coaches, teachers and players. (Craig Herndon/The Washington Post)
Just before his seventh year as boys’ basketball coach at St. John’s, Joe Gallagher decided to take a chance on a University of Maryland student, handing him the reins to the Cadets junior varsity basketball and football teams.
Morgan Wootten carefully studied Gallagher’s coaching style during his three years on staff, gleaning from Gallagher’s tough love approach and genuine concern for his student-athletes before taking the same approach to DeMatha in 1956 to start his own legendary coaching career.
“He gave me my start in coaching and was a tremendous mentor who had an incredible impact on my life,” Wootten said of Gallagher. “We had a great rivalry through the years, and he was definitely the best coach that I ever coached against.”
Gallagher, who is regarded as one of the greatest coaches in the District’s rich high school sports history, died of natural causes Monday night. He was 93.
Gallagher’s greatest impact was made in the hallways and on the playing fields at St. John’s, his alma mater, where he served as a basketball, football and baseball coach, athletic director and history teacher from 1947 to 1991.
In those 44 years at the Northwest Washington private school, Gallagher compiled an 870-292 record and two Washington Catholic Athletic Conference titles as basketball coach and a 171-32-10 mark while leading the football team.
After captaining the George Washington basketball team that beat Duke for the 1943 Southern Conference title, the Foggy Bottom native earned his first coaching experience in the Marine Corps, where he achieved the rank of captain during World War II.
He returned to St. John’s soon after, garnering success that ultimately led to his selection as a recipient of the Morgan Wootten Lifetime Achievement Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.
In 1961, Gallagher teamed with Wootten, his good friend and WCAC foe, to start the Metropolitan Area Basketball School, the nation’s first basketball day camp. Over the years, hordes of players attended and volunteered at the camp, including Adrian Dantley, Mike Brey and Jim Phelan. Former Pittsburgh standout, DeMatha assistant and Coastal Carolina head coach Pete Strickland honed both his playing and coaching skills at the camp, allowing him to connect with Gallagher as both a mentor and friend.
“He was just fun to be around,” said Strickland, who served as a counselor for 15 of the more than 30 years that Gallagher and Wootten ran the camp. “He brought light to every interaction he had and he always had a knack for saying the right thing to you.”
The Cadets now play their home games in “Gallagher Gym,” named in honor of their longtime coach and his wife of 46 years, Doris, who died just before Gallagher’s final season as coach.
In 2011, St. John’s celebrated Gallagher’s 90th birthday in the gym that bears his name with a party attended by hundreds of former players and colleagues. Gallagher’s humor and energy stretched well past that marker. He was a vibrant figure with the sharpest of memories when discussing his adventures on the sideline.
Current St. John’s basketball Coach Sean McAloon recalls chatting with Gallagher for two hours during a visit last year, soaking in lessons about life and basketball. At one point, Gallagher pulled out a pad and paper and began drawing up the play that helped him beat DeMatha at the buzzer three decades earlier at the Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament.
“When I got hired at St. John’s, the first thing that was said to me was we hope you can bring us back to the days of Joe Gallagher,” said McAloon, who took over the team in 2012. “So you’re sort of walking around in clown shoes as coach, but they’re also great shoes to fill because of how great a man and coach he was. It’s a sad day for D.C. and high school basketball.”
Swirling amid the heartbreak are fond memories of his fun-loving yet hard-nosed personality. As the Cadets’ point guard from 1976 to 1978, Mark Townsend likely received the brunt of the constructive criticism from Gallagher, who also played point guard at St. John’s. Gallagher was more concerned with toughness than X’s and O’s, Townsend said, a lesson the pupil fondly recalled last year while watching a determined Gallagher push his walker up on stage to receive the Touchdown Club Lifetime Achievement Award before delivering a thoughtful, 30-minute speech.
“He captivated the audience with his words and humor,” said Townsend, who was a part of Gallagher’s city championship team in 1977. “His greatest characteristic was his ability to lead people. He was competitive and expected a lot from you, but you always knew that he cared and that prepared us for life.”
Gallagher is survived by his four children, 12 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.