Eagles HoF Jim Gallagher Passes Away

[Phire]

Gallagher was likely before most of our times, well, maybe except dingo. There's been an outpouring of remembrances from the Philly media and here's a good tribute by Reuben Frank on that point.

Quote

Gallagher never played a snap for the Eagles, but he is without question an Eagles legend.
 
He joined the Eagles in 1949 and was along for the ride when they won the NFC Championship later that year, and he remained with the franchise in a variety of roles - personnel director, public relations director, traveling secretary - for 46 years until he retired in 1995.
 
Even after retirement, he was still an integral part of the franchise. He served the last 20 years as kind of an unofficial team historian and a conduit between the oldest surviving Eagles from the 1940s and 1950s and the current team.
 
If you were working on a project that involved the Eagles from the early days, you called Jimmy. He would regale you with these remarkably detailed stories about Van Buren and Bosh Pritchard and Pete Pihos and Bednarik for 45 minutes and then … “Now, what was the question again?”
 
He was a living, walking Eagles encyclopedia.

[Hockey5djh]

On 8/5/2017 at 4:25 PM, Phire said:

Even after retirement, he was still an integral part of the franchise. He served the last 20 years as kind of an unofficial team historian and a conduit between the oldest surviving Eagles from the 1940s and 1950s and the current team.
 
He was a living, walking Eagles encyclopedia.

These types of people are bigger losses than we generally realize. People that take the time to connect us with the past aren't easily replaced. The knowledge and connections that someone like this has aren't something that you can track. More than likely some Eagles history and knowledge that he knew and told will not make it to future generations. Its a sad day.

 

RIP Mr. Gallagher.

[TheRealMcCoy]

On 8/7/2017 at 6:28 AM, Hockey5djh said:

These types of people are bigger losses than we generally realize. People that take the time to connect us with the past aren't easily replaced. The knowledge and connections that someone like this has aren't something that you can track. More than likely some Eagles history and knowledge that he knew and told will not make it to future generations. Its a sad day.

 

RIP Mr. Gallagher.

Well said, Hockey.

I didn't know anything about him until reading this, but once an Eagle... always an Eagle.

RIP Jim.