Gallinger: A Life Suspended

Don Gallinger was a gifted athlete and a teenage phenomenon. In the fall of 1942, as a seventeen-year-old, he made the unprecedented jump from Junior B hockey to the Boston Bruins of the NHL. His career ended when he bet on NHL games and was suspended indefinitely at first, and then for like. Attempts to clear his name and have the suspension lifted were fruitless. He tried to build a life for himself and his family outside of the game but the odds were stacked against him. He lost his career and his fortune and in the end, his family and his health. In the history of organized hockey no one has ever walked in shoes quite like his. Fred Addis is a retired museum professional and past president of the Society for International Hockey Research. He has written for the SIHR Hockey Research Journal and contributed to Total Hockey Encyclopedia. He lives in Oro-Medonte, near Orillia, Ontario, Canada.