DOES NOT SUFFER FOOLS: Gallagher is not shy with his opinions
Photo: RICARDO GUGLIELMINOTTI
TOMMY GALLAGHER strides into the Ring8 board of directors meeting at O’Neill’s restaurant in Maspeth, New York. He is late and has no idea what is being discussed, but nevertheless dives right in, interrupting the seriousness of the moment to tell a joke. As president at the time, I have an agenda to cover, but have lost the room as Gallagher holds court. Everyone is laughing as Gallagher embellishes his tale. I try to restore a semblance of order, but my quest is futile. Gallagher is on a roll.
Sometimes I think that Gallagher, born in 1941 in the East New York section of Brooklyn, grew up in the wrong era. He should have been getting rowdy at a Boston bar with John L. Sullivan. Just as he should have had a towel draped over his shoulder, leading Jack Johnson into the ring, whispering in the fighter’s ear: “Screw all these people.”