Hughie was born in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire in 1903. He started "biffing a twopenny ball" almost as soon as he could walk. He began a long friendship with Alex James when at Bellshill Academy. He had been down the Hattonrig Pit at the age of 15, working 10-hour shifts. Aged 16 he left Lanarkshire junior league side Tannochside Athletic to join Hattonrigg Thistle. However fate played a part in his next move up the football ladder. As a spectator he attended to watch Bellshill Athletic (who had previously rejected Gallacher for being too small) playing St Mirren Juniors. Bellshill were a man short and Gallacher was asked to play. After hitting his side's goal in the 1–1 draw, he was asked to join the club.
He was barely 17 when he met and married Annie McIlvaney, a girl who worked at the pit where he worked as a miner. They had two children; Hughie Jr, who died before his first birthday and John 'Jackie' Gallacher who scored prolifically when he played for Celtic in the 1940s. However Hughie and his first wife divorced in acrimonious circumstances.
In December 1920, Hughie was picked for the Scottish junior side to play against Ireland at Shawfield. He hit the Scotland equaliser with a fine header with two minutes remaining in the 1–1 draw. Among those at the game was James Jolly, secretary of Dumfries club Queen of the South. Jolly approached Hughie after the game and offered him a trial at Queens, with the prospect of a £30 signing-on fee and £5 per week plus expenses should he do well in the trial. At the time Queens were in their second season after formation and, cup games aside, played only local fixtures. However it was professional football and that was good enough for Hughie.
Rejecting the opportunity of an international trial game at Methil, he made his Queen of the South debut aged 17 against St Cuthbert Wanderers on 29 January 1921. He scored four goals in a 7–0 victory. The Herald and Courier wrote after the game, "Gallacher was the pick of the front line. He is only a young player but knows all that is required of him in the centre. He gathers the ball to perfection and possesses a first time shot of a deadly nature. His four goals were all well taken and it was not his fault that he did not have more". The contract was waiting for Hughie after the game.
His next game was his senior debut, a Scottish Cup second round tie against Nithsdale Wanderers. Queens lost 3–1. In the 5–2 victory over Dumbarton, the Herald and Courier said of Gallacher, "From the first kick until the last, he showed exceptional dash and had the unusual record of scoring all five goals. He was continuously the source of great danger and showed no mercy with his rocket shooting".
While enjoying a holiday in Dumfries, Hughie took ill with double pneumonia. Doctors believed that he would never play football again, but a week later he was said to be recovering well. While in Dumfries Infirmary he was approached by directors of Airdrieonians who had noted his performance in a recent challenge game. At this time if a player was not playing league football at any time then he was free to sign for whoever offered a contract. Airdrie offered a contract and he signed without a second thought. In his nine games for Queens he hit 19 goals, with the game against Hawick on 13 April 1921 being his last.
He moved back to North Lanarkshire with the transfer to Airdrieonians. On 19 September 1921 Hughie made his senior Scottish League debut in the 2–0 defeat to Raith Rovers. He was selected for the first team 15 times that season and hit seven goals. He also helped Airdrie reserves to the Second XI Cup. The following season he became a first team mainstay as the club finished second. The next season they finished second again, with Hughie hitting five in a 6–1 win over Clyde that briefly had the Diamonds top of the league. Silverware arrived when Airdrie beat Hibernian 2–0 in the 1924 Scottish Cup Final to claim the club's first senior trophy. In 1925–26 Airdrie had their third straight second place league finish; Hughie was credited with 35 goals.
He was only 5 ft 5 ins tall and was often on the receiving end of rough treatment. However, because he tended to seek his own retribution, he was often in trouble with the authorities. There was much speculation about a number of English clubs that were out to sign him. The Airdrie fans were incensed and threatened to burn the wooden stand down if he was sold. His last game for the club came on 5 December 1925 in a 2–1 defeat to Morton.
Newcastle United's desperation for their new centre-forward meant that they were willing to pay £6,500 to capture him. He signed on 8 December 1925. He made an immediate impact, scoring two goals on his debut four days after signing in the 3–3 home draw against Evertonmand scoring 15 goals in his first nine games. He ended the season with 23 league goals in 19 games, ending up as the club's top scorer despite signing halfway through the season.
From the very first match he played in England he was a marked man, hacked and elbowed and gouged by defenders acting on instructions to stop him scoring at all costs. One teammate described how Gallacher would sit in the dressing room, with pieces of flesh hanging from his legs and his socks and boots soaked in blood.
The following season, 1926–27, 23-year-old he was given the captaincy, and his powerful leadership qualities took Newcastle to the League Championship for the first time since 1909. He is still widely rated today as Newcastle's finest ever player. He scored 36 league goals in 38 appearances, still the highest number of league goals in one season by a Newcastle player.
In the 1927–28 season he scored 21 league goals in 32 appearances. In the 1928–29 season he scored 24 league goals in 33 appearances. In the 1929–30 season he scored 29 league goals in 38 appearances.
Within a few months of coming to Newcastle he met and fell in love with Hannah Anderson, the 17-year-old daughter of the landlord of one of his favourite pubs. That caused gossip in the town, and he was threatened several times by her relatives. But Hannah was the only girl for Hughie, although it wasn't until 1934, when he was finally able to divorce, that he was able to marry her. She was to become the core of his life, and they had three sons together.
Whilst at Newcastle United, he scored 143 league and cup goals in 174 appearances. His strike rate of over 82% is the most prolific in the club's history.
A chant reportedly once sung at St James' Park in relation to Hughie went as follows;
"Do ye ken hughie gallacher the wee scots lad,
The best centre forward Newcastle ever had,
If he doesn't score a goal then wu'll put him on the dole,
and wu'll send him back to Scotland where he came from."
Hughie joined David Calderhead's Chelsea as part of a £25,000 spending spree which also saw the club sign his fellow Scottish forwards Alex Jackson and Alec Cheyne; such was his popularity at Newcastle, when Chelsea visited St James' Park, the home of Newcastle United, that season the attendance was a record 68,386 with several thousand more locked out. He scored 81 goals in 144 games and was Chelsea's top scorer in each of his four seasons in west London.
The FA Cup was to be the closest the club came to silverware. In 1932, the team secured impressive wins over Liverpool and Sheffield Wednesday, and were drawn against Newcastle United in the semi-finals. Tommy Lang inspired Newcastle to a 2–0 lead, before Hughie pulled one back for Chelsea. The Blues laid siege to the United goal in the second half, but were unable to make a breakthrough and the Geordies went on to lift the trophy.
His time there was also marred by suspensions for indiscipline – including a two-month ban for swearing at a referee – and off-pitch controversies. In 1934 he ended up in the bankruptcy court due to a prolonged and acrimonious divorce.
Hughie was transferred to Derby County in November 1934 for £2,750. He was taken under the wing of fellow Scotsmen Dally Duncan and an old Newcastle United friend, Jimmy Boyd, and was said to have been as good as gold during his Baseball Ground days. His 38 goals in 51 league games helped Derby finish second in the league to Sunderland in 1935–36. Hughie hit 40 goals in his 55 games for Derby.
Later in 1941, when the club were investigated by the FA over suspected financial irregularities, one of the accusations being that manager George Jobey had paid Hughie illegal signing on fees. The player refused to admit it, but Jobey, manager of the Rams since 1925, received a stunning ten-year suspension for his part in the scandal.
The following season, 1936, he moved to Notts County for £2,000. His impressive 32 goals in 45 games helped County to a second-place finish in England's third division. In January 1938 he moved to Grimsby Town for £1,000, hitting three goals in his 12 games.
Later in 1938, Gateshead, a modest team languishing in the bottom division, paid £500 for him. "It's grand to be back on Tyneside," said an emotional Gallacher, when he climbed off the train. "My heart has been here ever since I left United eight years ago. I intend to spend the rest of my life with my adopted folk in Gateshead." Crowds at the Gateshead ground soared to 20,000 a week. He hit 18 league goals for the club before retiring from football with the outbreak of World War II.
Hughie represented Scotland 20 times, hitting 24 goals. Only two players, Denis Law and Kenny Dalglish with 30 each, have scored more goals for the full Scotland team than his 24. He averaged 1.2 goals per game from his 20 caps. He won his first cap on 1 March 1924 in a 2–0 victory against Ireland. Scotland won all six games when Gallacher and Alex James were both selected to play; this included the 1928 'Wembley Wizards' 5–1 defeat of England when James netted twice.
Hughie continued to live in Gateshead, trying a number of careers, one of them being a sports journalist, a role that led to him being banned from St James' Park for his outspoken remarks about Newcastle United. However, he continued to be a popular character on Tyneside. With no savings from his footballing days, he took numerous unremarkable jobs, often menial, to earn a living to support his family. His second wife died in December 1950 from a heart complaint.
Of one evening in May 1957 his son, Hughie junior, later said in a press interview, "He'd had a drink on that night when the trouble started. Up until then he had never laid a finger on Matt, despite the fact that he could be really cheeky. But on this particular night Matt had gone over the top and dad had reacted. He had picked up an ashtray and threw it across the room, maybe in a fit of temper, I'm sure only to frighten the lad. But it hit Matt on the side of the head and drew blood. Basically this had been a domestic situation that had got a little out of hand and it should have been left at that. But a neighbour who had come on the scene asked if she should get the police and, without thinking, I said yes. If I'd only given myself a minute to think I wouldn't have said it. Yes, I was upset, but I obviously wasn't prepared for the consequences."
For weeks after the alleged assault, he began wandering the streets. Many people spoke to him including Newcastle players and staff offering support and assuring him that no one would believe the press and their scandalous statements. Many offered to speak on his behalf.
Denied access to his son and with the court appearance looming, he began to get increasingly irrational. A local reporter friend said he looked like 'a traumatised man walking in a glassy-eyed dream'. Gallacher said to a friend, "It's no good fighting this thing now. They have got me on this one. My life is finished. It's no use fighting when you know you can't win." He was summoned to Gateshead Magistrates Court for Wednesday 12 June 1957.
On 11 June, he posted a short message to the Gateshead Coroner expressing his regrets at what he had caused, adding that 'if he had lived to be 100 he would never be able to forgive himself for having hurt Mattie'. He then wandered aimlessly through the streets ignoring the greetings of several people.
On the day of his death, two young trainspotters watched him for half an hour pacing backwards and forwards on a footbridge over the London-Edinburgh railway line at Low Fell, Gateshead. He was openly weeping, talking to himself and occasionally pounding the bridge rail with his fists. He stepped down from the bridge and killed himself by walking in front of an oncoming express train.
He was barely 17 when he met and married Annie McIlvaney, a girl who worked at the pit where he worked as a miner. They had two children; Hughie Jr, who died before his first birthday and John 'Jackie' Gallacher who scored prolifically when he played for Celtic in the 1940s. However Hughie and his first wife divorced in acrimonious circumstances.
In December 1920, Hughie was picked for the Scottish junior side to play against Ireland at Shawfield. He hit the Scotland equaliser with a fine header with two minutes remaining in the 1–1 draw. Among those at the game was James Jolly, secretary of Dumfries club Queen of the South. Jolly approached Hughie after the game and offered him a trial at Queens, with the prospect of a £30 signing-on fee and £5 per week plus expenses should he do well in the trial. At the time Queens were in their second season after formation and, cup games aside, played only local fixtures. However it was professional football and that was good enough for Hughie.
Rejecting the opportunity of an international trial game at Methil, he made his Queen of the South debut aged 17 against St Cuthbert Wanderers on 29 January 1921. He scored four goals in a 7–0 victory. The Herald and Courier wrote after the game, "Gallacher was the pick of the front line. He is only a young player but knows all that is required of him in the centre. He gathers the ball to perfection and possesses a first time shot of a deadly nature. His four goals were all well taken and it was not his fault that he did not have more". The contract was waiting for Hughie after the game.
His next game was his senior debut, a Scottish Cup second round tie against Nithsdale Wanderers. Queens lost 3–1. In the 5–2 victory over Dumbarton, the Herald and Courier said of Gallacher, "From the first kick until the last, he showed exceptional dash and had the unusual record of scoring all five goals. He was continuously the source of great danger and showed no mercy with his rocket shooting".
While enjoying a holiday in Dumfries, Hughie took ill with double pneumonia. Doctors believed that he would never play football again, but a week later he was said to be recovering well. While in Dumfries Infirmary he was approached by directors of Airdrieonians who had noted his performance in a recent challenge game. At this time if a player was not playing league football at any time then he was free to sign for whoever offered a contract. Airdrie offered a contract and he signed without a second thought. In his nine games for Queens he hit 19 goals, with the game against Hawick on 13 April 1921 being his last.
He moved back to North Lanarkshire with the transfer to Airdrieonians. On 19 September 1921 Hughie made his senior Scottish League debut in the 2–0 defeat to Raith Rovers. He was selected for the first team 15 times that season and hit seven goals. He also helped Airdrie reserves to the Second XI Cup. The following season he became a first team mainstay as the club finished second. The next season they finished second again, with Hughie hitting five in a 6–1 win over Clyde that briefly had the Diamonds top of the league. Silverware arrived when Airdrie beat Hibernian 2–0 in the 1924 Scottish Cup Final to claim the club's first senior trophy. In 1925–26 Airdrie had their third straight second place league finish; Hughie was credited with 35 goals.
He was only 5 ft 5 ins tall and was often on the receiving end of rough treatment. However, because he tended to seek his own retribution, he was often in trouble with the authorities. There was much speculation about a number of English clubs that were out to sign him. The Airdrie fans were incensed and threatened to burn the wooden stand down if he was sold. His last game for the club came on 5 December 1925 in a 2–1 defeat to Morton.
Newcastle United's desperation for their new centre-forward meant that they were willing to pay £6,500 to capture him. He signed on 8 December 1925. He made an immediate impact, scoring two goals on his debut four days after signing in the 3–3 home draw against Evertonmand scoring 15 goals in his first nine games. He ended the season with 23 league goals in 19 games, ending up as the club's top scorer despite signing halfway through the season.
From the very first match he played in England he was a marked man, hacked and elbowed and gouged by defenders acting on instructions to stop him scoring at all costs. One teammate described how Gallacher would sit in the dressing room, with pieces of flesh hanging from his legs and his socks and boots soaked in blood.
The following season, 1926–27, 23-year-old he was given the captaincy, and his powerful leadership qualities took Newcastle to the League Championship for the first time since 1909. He is still widely rated today as Newcastle's finest ever player. He scored 36 league goals in 38 appearances, still the highest number of league goals in one season by a Newcastle player.
In the 1927–28 season he scored 21 league goals in 32 appearances. In the 1928–29 season he scored 24 league goals in 33 appearances. In the 1929–30 season he scored 29 league goals in 38 appearances.
Within a few months of coming to Newcastle he met and fell in love with Hannah Anderson, the 17-year-old daughter of the landlord of one of his favourite pubs. That caused gossip in the town, and he was threatened several times by her relatives. But Hannah was the only girl for Hughie, although it wasn't until 1934, when he was finally able to divorce, that he was able to marry her. She was to become the core of his life, and they had three sons together.
Whilst at Newcastle United, he scored 143 league and cup goals in 174 appearances. His strike rate of over 82% is the most prolific in the club's history.
A chant reportedly once sung at St James' Park in relation to Hughie went as follows;
"Do ye ken hughie gallacher the wee scots lad,
The best centre forward Newcastle ever had,
If he doesn't score a goal then wu'll put him on the dole,
and wu'll send him back to Scotland where he came from."
Hughie joined David Calderhead's Chelsea as part of a £25,000 spending spree which also saw the club sign his fellow Scottish forwards Alex Jackson and Alec Cheyne; such was his popularity at Newcastle, when Chelsea visited St James' Park, the home of Newcastle United, that season the attendance was a record 68,386 with several thousand more locked out. He scored 81 goals in 144 games and was Chelsea's top scorer in each of his four seasons in west London.
The FA Cup was to be the closest the club came to silverware. In 1932, the team secured impressive wins over Liverpool and Sheffield Wednesday, and were drawn against Newcastle United in the semi-finals. Tommy Lang inspired Newcastle to a 2–0 lead, before Hughie pulled one back for Chelsea. The Blues laid siege to the United goal in the second half, but were unable to make a breakthrough and the Geordies went on to lift the trophy.
His time there was also marred by suspensions for indiscipline – including a two-month ban for swearing at a referee – and off-pitch controversies. In 1934 he ended up in the bankruptcy court due to a prolonged and acrimonious divorce.
Hughie was transferred to Derby County in November 1934 for £2,750. He was taken under the wing of fellow Scotsmen Dally Duncan and an old Newcastle United friend, Jimmy Boyd, and was said to have been as good as gold during his Baseball Ground days. His 38 goals in 51 league games helped Derby finish second in the league to Sunderland in 1935–36. Hughie hit 40 goals in his 55 games for Derby.
Later in 1941, when the club were investigated by the FA over suspected financial irregularities, one of the accusations being that manager George Jobey had paid Hughie illegal signing on fees. The player refused to admit it, but Jobey, manager of the Rams since 1925, received a stunning ten-year suspension for his part in the scandal.
The following season, 1936, he moved to Notts County for £2,000. His impressive 32 goals in 45 games helped County to a second-place finish in England's third division. In January 1938 he moved to Grimsby Town for £1,000, hitting three goals in his 12 games.
Later in 1938, Gateshead, a modest team languishing in the bottom division, paid £500 for him. "It's grand to be back on Tyneside," said an emotional Gallacher, when he climbed off the train. "My heart has been here ever since I left United eight years ago. I intend to spend the rest of my life with my adopted folk in Gateshead." Crowds at the Gateshead ground soared to 20,000 a week. He hit 18 league goals for the club before retiring from football with the outbreak of World War II.
Hughie represented Scotland 20 times, hitting 24 goals. Only two players, Denis Law and Kenny Dalglish with 30 each, have scored more goals for the full Scotland team than his 24. He averaged 1.2 goals per game from his 20 caps. He won his first cap on 1 March 1924 in a 2–0 victory against Ireland. Scotland won all six games when Gallacher and Alex James were both selected to play; this included the 1928 'Wembley Wizards' 5–1 defeat of England when James netted twice.
Hughie continued to live in Gateshead, trying a number of careers, one of them being a sports journalist, a role that led to him being banned from St James' Park for his outspoken remarks about Newcastle United. However, he continued to be a popular character on Tyneside. With no savings from his footballing days, he took numerous unremarkable jobs, often menial, to earn a living to support his family. His second wife died in December 1950 from a heart complaint.
Of one evening in May 1957 his son, Hughie junior, later said in a press interview, "He'd had a drink on that night when the trouble started. Up until then he had never laid a finger on Matt, despite the fact that he could be really cheeky. But on this particular night Matt had gone over the top and dad had reacted. He had picked up an ashtray and threw it across the room, maybe in a fit of temper, I'm sure only to frighten the lad. But it hit Matt on the side of the head and drew blood. Basically this had been a domestic situation that had got a little out of hand and it should have been left at that. But a neighbour who had come on the scene asked if she should get the police and, without thinking, I said yes. If I'd only given myself a minute to think I wouldn't have said it. Yes, I was upset, but I obviously wasn't prepared for the consequences."
For weeks after the alleged assault, he began wandering the streets. Many people spoke to him including Newcastle players and staff offering support and assuring him that no one would believe the press and their scandalous statements. Many offered to speak on his behalf.
Denied access to his son and with the court appearance looming, he began to get increasingly irrational. A local reporter friend said he looked like 'a traumatised man walking in a glassy-eyed dream'. Gallacher said to a friend, "It's no good fighting this thing now. They have got me on this one. My life is finished. It's no use fighting when you know you can't win." He was summoned to Gateshead Magistrates Court for Wednesday 12 June 1957.
On 11 June, he posted a short message to the Gateshead Coroner expressing his regrets at what he had caused, adding that 'if he had lived to be 100 he would never be able to forgive himself for having hurt Mattie'. He then wandered aimlessly through the streets ignoring the greetings of several people.
On the day of his death, two young trainspotters watched him for half an hour pacing backwards and forwards on a footbridge over the London-Edinburgh railway line at Low Fell, Gateshead. He was openly weeping, talking to himself and occasionally pounding the bridge rail with his fists. He stepped down from the bridge and killed himself by walking in front of an oncoming express train.
Hughie was born in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire in 1903. He started "biffing a twopenny ball" almost as soon as he could walk. He began a long friendship with Alex James when at Bellshill Academy. He had been down the Hattonrig Pit at the age of 15, working 10-hour shifts. Aged 16 he left Lanarkshire junior league side Tannochside Athletic to join Hattonrigg Thistle. However fate played a part in his next move up the football ladder. As a spectator he attended to watch Bellshill Athletic (who had previously rejected Gallacher for being too small) playing St Mirren Juniors. Bellshill were a man short and Gallacher was asked to play. After hitting his side's goal in the 1–1 draw, he was asked to join the club.
He was barely 17 when he met and married Annie McIlvaney, a girl who worked at the pit where he worked as a miner. They had two children; Hughie Jr, who died before his first birthday and John 'Jackie' Gallacher who scored prolifically when he played for Celtic in the 1940s. However Hughie and his first wife divorced in acrimonious circumstances.
In December 1920, Hughie was picked for the Scottish junior side to play against Ireland at Shawfield. He hit the Scotland equaliser with a fine header with two minutes remaining in the 1–1 draw. Among those at the game was James Jolly, secretary of Dumfries club Queen of the South. Jolly approached Hughie after the game and offered him a trial at Queens, with the prospect of a £30 signing-on fee and £5 per week plus expenses should he do well in the trial. At the time Queens were in their second season after formation and, cup games aside, played only local fixtures. However it was professional football and that was good enough for Hughie.
Rejecting the opportunity of an international trial game at Methil, he made his Queen of the South debut aged 17 against St Cuthbert Wanderers on 29 January 1921. He scored four goals in a 7–0 victory. The Herald and Courier wrote after the game, "Gallacher was the pick of the front line. He is only a young player but knows all that is required of him in the centre. He gathers the ball to perfection and possesses a first time shot of a deadly nature. His four goals were all well taken and it was not his fault that he did not have more". The contract was waiting for Hughie after the game.
His next game was his senior debut, a Scottish Cup second round tie against Nithsdale Wanderers. Queens lost 3–1. In the 5–2 victory over Dumbarton, the Herald and Courier said of Gallacher, "From the first kick until the last, he showed exceptional dash and had the unusual record of scoring all five goals. He was continuously the source of great danger and showed no mercy with his rocket shooting".
While enjoying a holiday in Dumfries, Hughie took ill with double pneumonia. Doctors believed that he would never play football again, but a week later he was said to be recovering well. While in Dumfries Infirmary he was approached by directors of Airdrieonians who had noted his performance in a recent challenge game. At this time if a player was not playing league football at any time then he was free to sign for whoever offered a contract. Airdrie offered a contract and he signed without a second thought. In his nine games for Queens he hit 19 goals, with the game against Hawick on 13 April 1921 being his last.
He moved back to North Lanarkshire with the transfer to Airdrieonians. On 19 September 1921 Hughie made his senior Scottish League debut in the 2–0 defeat to Raith Rovers. He was selected for the first team 15 times that season and hit seven goals. He also helped Airdrie reserves to the Second XI Cup. The following season he became a first team mainstay as the club finished second. The next season they finished second again, with Hughie hitting five in a 6–1 win over Clyde that briefly had the Diamonds top of the league. Silverware arrived when Airdrie beat Hibernian 2–0 in the 1924 Scottish Cup Final to claim the club's first senior trophy. In 1925–26 Airdrie had their third straight second place league finish; Hughie was credited with 35 goals.
He was only 5 ft 5 ins tall and was often on the receiving end of rough treatment. However, because he tended to seek his own retribution, he was often in trouble with the authorities. There was much speculation about a number of English clubs that were out to sign him. The Airdrie fans were incensed and threatened to burn the wooden stand down if he was sold. His last game for the club came on 5 December 1925 in a 2–1 defeat to Morton.
Newcastle United's desperation for their new centre-forward meant that they were willing to pay £6,500 to capture him. He signed on 8 December 1925. He made an immediate impact, scoring two goals on his debut four days after signing in the 3–3 home draw against Evertonmand scoring 15 goals in his first nine games. He ended the season with 23 league goals in 19 games, ending up as the club's top scorer despite signing halfway through the season.
From the very first match he played in England he was a marked man, hacked and elbowed and gouged by defenders acting on instructions to stop him scoring at all costs. One teammate described how Gallacher would sit in the dressing room, with pieces of flesh hanging from his legs and his socks and boots soaked in blood.
The following season, 1926–27, 23-year-old he was given the captaincy, and his powerful leadership qualities took Newcastle to the League Championship for the first time since 1909. He is still widely rated today as Newcastle's finest ever player. He scored 36 league goals in 38 appearances, still the highest number of league goals in one season by a Newcastle player.
In the 1927–28 season he scored 21 league goals in 32 appearances. In the 1928–29 season he scored 24 league goals in 33 appearances. In the 1929–30 season he scored 29 league goals in 38 appearances.
Within a few months of coming to Newcastle he met and fell in love with Hannah Anderson, the 17-year-old daughter of the landlord of one of his favourite pubs. That caused gossip in the town, and he was threatened several times by her relatives. But Hannah was the only girl for Hughie, although it wasn't until 1934, when he was finally able to divorce, that he was able to marry her. She was to become the core of his life, and they had three sons together.
Whilst at Newcastle United, he scored 143 league and cup goals in 174 appearances. His strike rate of over 82% is the most prolific in the club's history.
A chant reportedly once sung at St James' Park in relation to Hughie went as follows;
"Do ye ken hughie gallacher the wee scots lad,
The best centre forward Newcastle ever had,
If he doesn't score a goal then wu'll put him on the dole,
and wu'll send him back to Scotland where he came from."
Hughie joined David Calderhead's Chelsea as part of a £25,000 spending spree which also saw the club sign his fellow Scottish forwards Alex Jackson and Alec Cheyne; such was his popularity at Newcastle, when Chelsea visited St James' Park, the home of Newcastle United, that season the attendance was a record 68,386 with several thousand more locked out. He scored 81 goals in 144 games and was Chelsea's top scorer in each of his four seasons in west London.
The FA Cup was to be the closest the club came to silverware. In 1932, the team secured impressive wins over Liverpool and Sheffield Wednesday, and were drawn against Newcastle United in the semi-finals. Tommy Lang inspired Newcastle to a 2–0 lead, before Hughie pulled one back for Chelsea. The Blues laid siege to the United goal in the second half, but were unable to make a breakthrough and the Geordies went on to lift the trophy.
His time there was also marred by suspensions for indiscipline – including a two-month ban for swearing at a referee – and off-pitch controversies. In 1934 he ended up in the bankruptcy court due to a prolonged and acrimonious divorce.
Hughie was transferred to Derby County in November 1934 for £2,750. He was taken under the wing of fellow Scotsmen Dally Duncan and an old Newcastle United friend, Jimmy Boyd, and was said to have been as good as gold during his Baseball Ground days. His 38 goals in 51 league games helped Derby finish second in the league to Sunderland in 1935–36. Hughie hit 40 goals in his 55 games for Derby.
Later in 1941, when the club were investigated by the FA over suspected financial irregularities, one of the accusations being that manager George Jobey had paid Hughie illegal signing on fees. The player refused to admit it, but Jobey, manager of the Rams since 1925, received a stunning ten-year suspension for his part in the scandal.
The following season, 1936, he moved to Notts County for £2,000. His impressive 32 goals in 45 games helped County to a second-place finish in England's third division. In January 1938 he moved to Grimsby Town for £1,000, hitting three goals in his 12 games.
Later in 1938, Gateshead, a modest team languishing in the bottom division, paid £500 for him. "It's grand to be back on Tyneside," said an emotional Gallacher, when he climbed off the train. "My heart has been here ever since I left United eight years ago. I intend to spend the rest of my life with my adopted folk in Gateshead." Crowds at the Gateshead ground soared to 20,000 a week. He hit 18 league goals for the club before retiring from football with the outbreak of World War II.
Hughie represented Scotland 20 times, hitting 24 goals. Only two players, Denis Law and Kenny Dalglish with 30 each, have scored more goals for the full Scotland team than his 24. He averaged 1.2 goals per game from his 20 caps. He won his first cap on 1 March 1924 in a 2–0 victory against Ireland. Scotland won all six games when Gallacher and Alex James were both selected to play; this included the 1928 'Wembley Wizards' 5–1 defeat of England when James netted twice.
Hughie continued to live in Gateshead, trying a number of careers, one of them being a sports journalist, a role that led to him being banned from St James' Park for his outspoken remarks about Newcastle United. However, he continued to be a popular character on Tyneside. With no savings from his footballing days, he took numerous unremarkable jobs, often menial, to earn a living to support his family. His second wife died in December 1950 from a heart complaint.
Of one evening in May 1957 his son, Hughie junior, later said in a press interview, "He'd had a drink on that night when the trouble started. Up until then he had never laid a finger on Matt, despite the fact that he could be really cheeky. But on this particular night Matt had gone over the top and dad had reacted. He had picked up an ashtray and threw it across the room, maybe in a fit of temper, I'm sure only to frighten the lad. But it hit Matt on the side of the head and drew blood. Basically this had been a domestic situation that had got a little out of hand and it should have been left at that. But a neighbour who had come on the scene asked if she should get the police and, without thinking, I said yes. If I'd only given myself a minute to think I wouldn't have said it. Yes, I was upset, but I obviously wasn't prepared for the consequences."
For weeks after the alleged assault, he began wandering the streets. Many people spoke to him including Newcastle players and staff offering support and assuring him that no one would believe the press and their scandalous statements. Many offered to speak on his behalf.
Denied access to his son and with the court appearance looming, he began to get increasingly irrational. A local reporter friend said he looked like 'a traumatised man walking in a glassy-eyed dream'. Gallacher said to a friend, "It's no good fighting this thing now. They have got me on this one. My life is finished. It's no use fighting when you know you can't win." He was summoned to Gateshead Magistrates Court for Wednesday 12 June 1957.
On 11 June, he posted a short message to the Gateshead Coroner expressing his regrets at what he had caused, adding that 'if he had lived to be 100 he would never be able to forgive himself for having hurt Mattie'. He then wandered aimlessly through the streets ignoring the greetings of several people.
On the day of his death, two young trainspotters watched him for half an hour pacing backwards and forwards on a footbridge over the London-Edinburgh railway line at Low Fell, Gateshead. He was openly weeping, talking to himself and occasionally pounding the bridge rail with his fists. He stepped down from the bridge and killed himself by walking in front of an oncoming express train.
He was barely 17 when he met and married Annie McIlvaney, a girl who worked at the pit where he worked as a miner. They had two children; Hughie Jr, who died before his first birthday and John 'Jackie' Gallacher who scored prolifically when he played for Celtic in the 1940s. However Hughie and his first wife divorced in acrimonious circumstances.
In December 1920, Hughie was picked for the Scottish junior side to play against Ireland at Shawfield. He hit the Scotland equaliser with a fine header with two minutes remaining in the 1–1 draw. Among those at the game was James Jolly, secretary of Dumfries club Queen of the South. Jolly approached Hughie after the game and offered him a trial at Queens, with the prospect of a £30 signing-on fee and £5 per week plus expenses should he do well in the trial. At the time Queens were in their second season after formation and, cup games aside, played only local fixtures. However it was professional football and that was good enough for Hughie.
Rejecting the opportunity of an international trial game at Methil, he made his Queen of the South debut aged 17 against St Cuthbert Wanderers on 29 January 1921. He scored four goals in a 7–0 victory. The Herald and Courier wrote after the game, "Gallacher was the pick of the front line. He is only a young player but knows all that is required of him in the centre. He gathers the ball to perfection and possesses a first time shot of a deadly nature. His four goals were all well taken and it was not his fault that he did not have more". The contract was waiting for Hughie after the game.
His next game was his senior debut, a Scottish Cup second round tie against Nithsdale Wanderers. Queens lost 3–1. In the 5–2 victory over Dumbarton, the Herald and Courier said of Gallacher, "From the first kick until the last, he showed exceptional dash and had the unusual record of scoring all five goals. He was continuously the source of great danger and showed no mercy with his rocket shooting".
While enjoying a holiday in Dumfries, Hughie took ill with double pneumonia. Doctors believed that he would never play football again, but a week later he was said to be recovering well. While in Dumfries Infirmary he was approached by directors of Airdrieonians who had noted his performance in a recent challenge game. At this time if a player was not playing league football at any time then he was free to sign for whoever offered a contract. Airdrie offered a contract and he signed without a second thought. In his nine games for Queens he hit 19 goals, with the game against Hawick on 13 April 1921 being his last.
He moved back to North Lanarkshire with the transfer to Airdrieonians. On 19 September 1921 Hughie made his senior Scottish League debut in the 2–0 defeat to Raith Rovers. He was selected for the first team 15 times that season and hit seven goals. He also helped Airdrie reserves to the Second XI Cup. The following season he became a first team mainstay as the club finished second. The next season they finished second again, with Hughie hitting five in a 6–1 win over Clyde that briefly had the Diamonds top of the league. Silverware arrived when Airdrie beat Hibernian 2–0 in the 1924 Scottish Cup Final to claim the club's first senior trophy. In 1925–26 Airdrie had their third straight second place league finish; Hughie was credited with 35 goals.
He was only 5 ft 5 ins tall and was often on the receiving end of rough treatment. However, because he tended to seek his own retribution, he was often in trouble with the authorities. There was much speculation about a number of English clubs that were out to sign him. The Airdrie fans were incensed and threatened to burn the wooden stand down if he was sold. His last game for the club came on 5 December 1925 in a 2–1 defeat to Morton.
Newcastle United's desperation for their new centre-forward meant that they were willing to pay £6,500 to capture him. He signed on 8 December 1925. He made an immediate impact, scoring two goals on his debut four days after signing in the 3–3 home draw against Evertonmand scoring 15 goals in his first nine games. He ended the season with 23 league goals in 19 games, ending up as the club's top scorer despite signing halfway through the season.
From the very first match he played in England he was a marked man, hacked and elbowed and gouged by defenders acting on instructions to stop him scoring at all costs. One teammate described how Gallacher would sit in the dressing room, with pieces of flesh hanging from his legs and his socks and boots soaked in blood.
The following season, 1926–27, 23-year-old he was given the captaincy, and his powerful leadership qualities took Newcastle to the League Championship for the first time since 1909. He is still widely rated today as Newcastle's finest ever player. He scored 36 league goals in 38 appearances, still the highest number of league goals in one season by a Newcastle player.
In the 1927–28 season he scored 21 league goals in 32 appearances. In the 1928–29 season he scored 24 league goals in 33 appearances. In the 1929–30 season he scored 29 league goals in 38 appearances.
Within a few months of coming to Newcastle he met and fell in love with Hannah Anderson, the 17-year-old daughter of the landlord of one of his favourite pubs. That caused gossip in the town, and he was threatened several times by her relatives. But Hannah was the only girl for Hughie, although it wasn't until 1934, when he was finally able to divorce, that he was able to marry her. She was to become the core of his life, and they had three sons together.
Whilst at Newcastle United, he scored 143 league and cup goals in 174 appearances. His strike rate of over 82% is the most prolific in the club's history.
A chant reportedly once sung at St James' Park in relation to Hughie went as follows;
"Do ye ken hughie gallacher the wee scots lad,
The best centre forward Newcastle ever had,
If he doesn't score a goal then wu'll put him on the dole,
and wu'll send him back to Scotland where he came from."
Hughie joined David Calderhead's Chelsea as part of a £25,000 spending spree which also saw the club sign his fellow Scottish forwards Alex Jackson and Alec Cheyne; such was his popularity at Newcastle, when Chelsea visited St James' Park, the home of Newcastle United, that season the attendance was a record 68,386 with several thousand more locked out. He scored 81 goals in 144 games and was Chelsea's top scorer in each of his four seasons in west London.
The FA Cup was to be the closest the club came to silverware. In 1932, the team secured impressive wins over Liverpool and Sheffield Wednesday, and were drawn against Newcastle United in the semi-finals. Tommy Lang inspired Newcastle to a 2–0 lead, before Hughie pulled one back for Chelsea. The Blues laid siege to the United goal in the second half, but were unable to make a breakthrough and the Geordies went on to lift the trophy.
His time there was also marred by suspensions for indiscipline – including a two-month ban for swearing at a referee – and off-pitch controversies. In 1934 he ended up in the bankruptcy court due to a prolonged and acrimonious divorce.
Hughie was transferred to Derby County in November 1934 for £2,750. He was taken under the wing of fellow Scotsmen Dally Duncan and an old Newcastle United friend, Jimmy Boyd, and was said to have been as good as gold during his Baseball Ground days. His 38 goals in 51 league games helped Derby finish second in the league to Sunderland in 1935–36. Hughie hit 40 goals in his 55 games for Derby.
Later in 1941, when the club were investigated by the FA over suspected financial irregularities, one of the accusations being that manager George Jobey had paid Hughie illegal signing on fees. The player refused to admit it, but Jobey, manager of the Rams since 1925, received a stunning ten-year suspension for his part in the scandal.
The following season, 1936, he moved to Notts County for £2,000. His impressive 32 goals in 45 games helped County to a second-place finish in England's third division. In January 1938 he moved to Grimsby Town for £1,000, hitting three goals in his 12 games.
Later in 1938, Gateshead, a modest team languishing in the bottom division, paid £500 for him. "It's grand to be back on Tyneside," said an emotional Gallacher, when he climbed off the train. "My heart has been here ever since I left United eight years ago. I intend to spend the rest of my life with my adopted folk in Gateshead." Crowds at the Gateshead ground soared to 20,000 a week. He hit 18 league goals for the club before retiring from football with the outbreak of World War II.
Hughie represented Scotland 20 times, hitting 24 goals. Only two players, Denis Law and Kenny Dalglish with 30 each, have scored more goals for the full Scotland team than his 24. He averaged 1.2 goals per game from his 20 caps. He won his first cap on 1 March 1924 in a 2–0 victory against Ireland. Scotland won all six games when Gallacher and Alex James were both selected to play; this included the 1928 'Wembley Wizards' 5–1 defeat of England when James netted twice.
Hughie continued to live in Gateshead, trying a number of careers, one of them being a sports journalist, a role that led to him being banned from St James' Park for his outspoken remarks about Newcastle United. However, he continued to be a popular character on Tyneside. With no savings from his footballing days, he took numerous unremarkable jobs, often menial, to earn a living to support his family. His second wife died in December 1950 from a heart complaint.
Of one evening in May 1957 his son, Hughie junior, later said in a press interview, "He'd had a drink on that night when the trouble started. Up until then he had never laid a finger on Matt, despite the fact that he could be really cheeky. But on this particular night Matt had gone over the top and dad had reacted. He had picked up an ashtray and threw it across the room, maybe in a fit of temper, I'm sure only to frighten the lad. But it hit Matt on the side of the head and drew blood. Basically this had been a domestic situation that had got a little out of hand and it should have been left at that. But a neighbour who had come on the scene asked if she should get the police and, without thinking, I said yes. If I'd only given myself a minute to think I wouldn't have said it. Yes, I was upset, but I obviously wasn't prepared for the consequences."
For weeks after the alleged assault, he began wandering the streets. Many people spoke to him including Newcastle players and staff offering support and assuring him that no one would believe the press and their scandalous statements. Many offered to speak on his behalf.
Denied access to his son and with the court appearance looming, he began to get increasingly irrational. A local reporter friend said he looked like 'a traumatised man walking in a glassy-eyed dream'. Gallacher said to a friend, "It's no good fighting this thing now. They have got me on this one. My life is finished. It's no use fighting when you know you can't win." He was summoned to Gateshead Magistrates Court for Wednesday 12 June 1957.
On 11 June, he posted a short message to the Gateshead Coroner expressing his regrets at what he had caused, adding that 'if he had lived to be 100 he would never be able to forgive himself for having hurt Mattie'. He then wandered aimlessly through the streets ignoring the greetings of several people.
On the day of his death, two young trainspotters watched him for half an hour pacing backwards and forwards on a footbridge over the London-Edinburgh railway line at Low Fell, Gateshead. He was openly weeping, talking to himself and occasionally pounding the bridge rail with his fists. He stepped down from the bridge and killed himself by walking in front of an oncoming express train.
Gravesite Details
Commemorated in Book of Remembrance.
No known memorial.
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