Where Are They Now?
10/10/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 10, 2007
As young man from Pearsall, Texas, Gale Galloway had the academic and the athletic ability to attend any school in the country. After ruling out Notre Dame for being too far away for his mother to watch his games, Galloway hopped off of a train ride to Dallas financed by SMU coaches a little early in Waco, Texas, and never regretted the decision.
Galloway and many other talented individuals came to Baylor in order to build something great. He contributes much of their success to the friendships and connections made by the players. The team finished the season nationally ranked each year that Galloway stepped on the field. In his final season as a Bear, Galloway co-captained a team that made a 1951 Orange Bowl appearance and achieved an overall ranking of ninth, the highest post-season slating awarded to any Baylor team before or since.
"I was very fortunate that I came along at a time when we were developing an outstanding program," Galloway said. "We had outstanding coaches, recruits and players."
A leader both on and off the field, Galloway triple majored and still graduated in four years. He was also commissioned as a Lt. Colonel in the Air Force ROTC. After college Galloway was drafted by the Chicago Bears.
"It was always my dream to play for Coach Halas, but after college I signed two contracts, one to the Bears and one to Uncle Sam."
On August 8, 1952, Galloway was called to active duty and had to leave behind his plans for Chicago in order to serve in Korea.
While stationed in the Air Force Galloway witnessed the crashing of B-36, which had several of his comrades aboard. He and several others were stopped by the Air Police from rushing to them so that they would not be endangered by the flames of the wreckage. Galloway vowed that if he ever had the chance to help someone in that capacity again, he would. While waiting in a company plane at Houston's Hobby Airport after his time in the service a commuter plane downed less than 100 yards away careening into several vehicles. Galloway and several others jumped from their plane and rescued three people from the 40 foot flames. For this act Galloway received the Carnegie Foundation's Medal for Personal Heroism, the highest honor given to a civilian.
The success of those Bears teams followed many of the recent graduates through the Korean conflict. Many emerged as leaders in several branches including multiple Colonels and a General. Galloway takes great pride in the accomplishment of his teammates and friends throughout their lives, particularly the fact that of those in that group all but two graduated in four years.
After the service Galloway was offered a Linebacker spot with the Rams, but declined in order to take a coaching position at Texas A&I. Two years down the road he found his passion moving him into the oil industry.
"I had worked on oil rigs as young as 16 and always kept in the back of my mind the thoughts of coaching and working with oil. After I got coaching out of my system I decided to head back to oil."
Galloway proved to be very successful in building companies. He rose to the top position in three Fortune 500 companies after being drafted by each of their boards of directors.
"I only went into a company if it had one way to go...up."
Since working in those capacities, Galloway has started and sold his own company and served on several boards of directors. He is also the only Baylor graduate to serve as chairman of the Baylor Board of Regents.
Galloway currently lives in Austin where he is a chairman for Infinity Energy. He remains very active in the Baylor community.
