Jerry Gallagher will be inducted into the LHS and U.P. Sports Halls of Fame this fall. (Photograph courtesy of the Gallagher family) Jerry Gallagher, teacher, coach, and school administrator in the Eastern Upper Peninsula, and formerly in St. Ignace, has been selected to both the LaSalle High School and Upper Peninsula Sports Halls of Fame.

LaSalle’s second annual induction will be Saturday, October 17, at Kewadin Shores Casino in St. Ignace. The 39th annual Upper Peninsula ceremony will be at Danforth Place in Escanaba Saturday, April 24, 2010.

Gallagher, a standout football, basketball, and track performer, earned 11 varsity letters and was graduated from Iron River High School in 1955. He played football while attending Marquette University for one year=. After spending two years in the Marine Corps, Gallagher was a member of the Marines boxing championship team. He completed his college education at Northern Michigan University in 1964.

He and his wife, Barb, who have been married 45 years, moved to Meridian, where he was athletic director and football coach. In 1966, after two years, the Gallaghers moved back to the Upper Peninsula and St. Ignace, where he would teach biology and science and coach the Saints football and junior varsity basketball teams.

Gallagher was an outstanding fast pitch softball pitcher. The day he was married, his team from Iron River was playing in a tournament. After losing their opening game, he recalls his teammates convinced his new wife to let him play the next day of the tournament, and Iron River came out of the losers bracket as he pitched 35 innings, leading the team to the tourney championship.

Coach Gallagher led St. Ignace to a 57-13-1 overall record in eight years, with the Saints winning five conference titles in 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, and 1973. The Saints were named Upper Peninsula Team of the Year in 1972 and were selected Class C state champions in 1973 with a 9-0 record. St. Ignace scored 2,031 points (28.6 average) and allowed 725 points (10.2 average) during his career.

The Saints recorded 8-1 records in 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1972, a 7-2 mark in 1969, 6-1-1 in 1971, and 3-6 in 1970.

In 1971 Gallagher added school athletic director and guidance counselor to his duties. In 1976, he became assistant principal, and in 1978 superintendent of St. Ignace Area Schools.

Gallagher was hired as the Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School superintendent in 1989 and stayed in the area until 2000. For the next four years, he was president of the Michigan Leadership Institute in Lansing and Traverse City.

The Gallaghers have two children and their families, Dan and Debbie and Patrick and Eun-Su, with four granddaughters, Cassandra, Kayla, Marah, and Mackenzie.

Gallagher joins James Brown, Sr., Ken Brown, Greg LaTour, Dan Wyers, and Sandy (nee Halberg) Krause and the 1965 Saints football team in the LaSalle Hall of Fame this year.

He joins and Ira Hack Hanson, Jim Lindstrom, Bob Mariucci, Tammie (nee Anderson) Marchek, Bret Pearson, Lewis Reiman, Len Umnus, George Atanasoff, and Scott Erickson in the U.P. Sports Hall of Fame (UPSHF).

UPSHF Elects Executive

Committee

The Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame committee met in Manistique July 31 and selected the class of 2010. Cathy Shamion of Ontonagon was elected executive director; Rob Guizzetti of Negaunee president; David Latva of St. Ignace vice president; Dennis Grall of Escanaba executive secretary, and Steve Swanson of Ishpeming treasurer.

Remaining council members include Art Allen of Manistique, Bill Crawford and Fred DeVuono of Sault Ste. Marie, Karl Dickson of Escanaba, Robert Erkkila of Calumet, Dave Hallgren of Negaunee, Ted Kearly of Houghton, Bob Krysiak of Menominee, Dave Lahtinen of Gladstone, Gene Maki and Nancy Osier of Wakefield, Jim Partanen of Bessemer, Craig Remsburg of Marquette, Frank Rodman of Hermansville, Larry Rubick of Newberry, and Rex Terwilliger and Duane Tirschel of Iron Mountain.