Tommy Gallacher (13 July 1922 – 24 November 2001) was a Scottish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Football career

Tommy was only seven years old when his mother died. He was thus brought up by his father, by this stage playing for

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

at the end of his career. At one point the thought of the priesthood was a possibility for Tommy. However, that was not to be and he joined

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

side Queen's Park as a young man and played for them throughout World War II. He made five appearances in league matches for Queen's Park when the league resumed in the 1946/47 season. Tommy moved to

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

in 1947 to become a professional player. That coincided with one of the greatest eras in the club's history and formed the backbone of the legendary Dundee team that included names such as Bill Brown, Doug Cowie,

Alfie Boyd Alf Boyd (22 October 1920 – 3 July 1998) was a Scottish professional footballer who played as a wing half. Career Born in Dundee, Boyd played in Scotland for Dundee North End, St Johnstone and Dundee; he was later player-coach of Marist Bros ...

, Bobby Flavell and Billy Steel. Together with Cowie and Boyd in Dundee's half-back line, Gallacher and Dundee missed out on the League Championship on the last day of the 1948/49 season to

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

. A few years later though, the same Dundee team won the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...

and in

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

. Dundee became the first side to retain the League Cup. They could have won a cup double in 1951/52, but lost the

1952 Scottish Cup Final The 1952 Scottish Cup final was played on 19 April 1952, at Hampden Park in Glasgow and was the final of the 67th Scottish Cup competition. The final was contested by Dundee F.C., Dundee and Motherwell F.C., Motherwell. Motherwell won the match ...

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

4–0 at Hampden. Tommy was unlucky not to have been capped for

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. One appearance for the

Scottish League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 k ...

against the English League at Newcastle in 1949 was his only international honour. Gallacher was unfortunate that at the time there were an abundance of great Scottish right-halves - the likes of

Bobby Evans Robert Evans (1930–2019) was an American film producer. Robert, Rob, Bob or Bobby Evans may also refer to: Business * Robert Harding Evans (1778–1857), bookseller and auctioneer * Robert B. Evans (1906–1998), industrialist, socialite, sport ...

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

Ian McColl John Miller "Ian" McColl (7 June 1927 – 25 October 2008) was a Scottish football player and manager. McColl played as a defender for Queen's Park and Rangers, while he also represented both the Scotland national team and the Scottish Lea ...

Tommy Docherty Thomas Henderson Docherty (24 April 1928 – 31 December 2020), commonly known as The Doc, was a Scottish football player and manager. Docherty played for several clubs, most notably Preston North End, and represented Scotland 25 times bet ...

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

and

Jimmy Scoular James Scoular (11 January 1925 – 19 March 1998) was a Scottish football player and manager. Known as a tough, combative player with precise passing skills, Scoular made over 600 appearances in the Football League with Portsmouth, Newcastle Un ...

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

Journalist

Gallacher's impact on

and

Tayside Tayside () was one of the nine regions used for local government in Scotland from 16 May 1975 to 31 March 1996. The region was named after the River Tay. History Tayside region was created in 1975 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act ...

was not just as a footballer because after his retirement in 1956, he became one of the most respected journalists in the country working for the Courier. Not only did he follow both the

teams through their ventures in Europe and at home, but he was also much respected in the peripheral areas of

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland. The team competes in the , the second division of Scottish football. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun (or Saint Johnstoun)—an old name o ...

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. The club has won f ...

and

Forfar Forfar (; , ) is the county town of Angus, Scotland, and the administrative centre for Angus Council, with a new multi-million-pound office complex located on the outskirts of the town. As of 2021, the town had a population of 16,280. The town ...

for the encouragement he gave to the smaller teams. He retired from this job in 1985.

Personal life

Tommy Gallacher was the son of Celtic legend

Patsy Gallacher Patrick Gallacher (16 March 1891 – 17 June 1953) was an Irish association football, footballer, playing in the inside-right position, most noted for his career at Celtic F.C., Celtic, where he became one of the club's leading goalscorers of a ...

. Tommy played for Dundee in a game in April

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...

which could have relegated Celtic, if Dundee had won. His father was watching in the

Dens Park Dens Park is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland, which is the home of club Dundee F.C. and has a capacity of . Tannadice Park, the home of rivals Dundee United, is just 200 yards (183 metres) away. History Dundee moved to "Dens" from the ...

stand and his brother,

Willie Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to: People Given name or nickname * Willie Allen (basketball) (born 1949), American basketball player and ...

, was playing for Celtic that day. Celtic won 3-2 and avoided relegation. Tommy married Cathy in 1952 and they had five children: Brian , Mark, Kevin, Sheila and Patricia. Former

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...

and

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

and Scottish international,

Kevin Gallacher Kevin William Gallacher (born 23 November 1966) is a Scottish football pundit and commentator, and former professional player. He played as a forward from 1983 until 2002, notably in the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers where he was part o ...

, is Tommy's nephew. Kevin now works in the media for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, Talk show, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadca ...

and

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotla ...

. Brian's son Sean was briefly a reserve team player at Dundee. Amy Gallacher, Tommy's granddaughter, joined the Celtic women's team in 2022 after five years at Hibernian. The Gallachers are also related to another footballing branch of the family, John Divers and his son of the same name who both played for Celtic.

Career Recognition

At the 2011 Dundee F.C. Hall of Fame ceremony, Tommy Gallacher was awarded the Heritage Award by the club. The award is granted biannually to late greats of the club.

Honours

;Dundee

: 1951–52, 1952–53

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gallacher, Tommy 1922 births 2001 deaths Scottish men's footballers Footballers from Renfrew Men's association football wing halves Queen's Park F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Scottish Football League players Scottish Football League representative players Scottish sportswriters Scottish people of Irish descent

Tommy Tommy may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tommy (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army * Tommy Giacomelli (born 1974), Brazilian fo ...

20th-century Scottish sportsmen