Richard F . Gallagher Richard F . " Dick " Gallagher ( October 28 , 1909 – March 29 , 1995 ) was a baseball , basketball and American football coach and administrator who served as an assistant with the Cleveland Browns and Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League in the 1940s and 1950s . Gallagher also coached at high schools in his native Ohio and was the head baseball and basketball coach at the College of William & Mary in Virginia from 1946 to 1947 . He spent three years as head football coach at Santa Clara University in California in the early 1950s , and ended his career by becoming the general manager of the Buffalo Bills and later the director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame . Gallagher grew up in Ironton , Ohio and was a star athlete in high school . He attended Kentucky Wesleyan College , where he continued to play sports . After graduation , he played briefly for the semi - professional Ironton Tanks in 1930 before starting a coaching career . He first coached in Pedro , Ohio and then at Ironton High School before getting his first college coaching job in 1940 as an assistant at William & Mary . Gallagher served in the U . S . Navy during World War II , and returned to William & Mary after his discharge in 1945 . He was promoted to head coach of the school ' s baseball and basketball programs the following year , and led the William & Mary Tribe men ' s basketball team to a 14 - 12 win - loss record in the 1946 – 47 season . Gallagher then joined the Browns , where he stayed for three seasons before resigning to take the head coaching job at Santa Clara . He compiled a record of 8 – 18 – 2 in three years at Santa Clara . Gallagher subsequently returned to the Browns as a scout , and remained with the team until 1960 , when he became the Bills ' general manager . After six years in Buffalo , he resigned to become a scout for the San Francisco 49ers . He stayed in that job for one season before joining the Hall of Fame as the second director in its history . Gallagher retired in 1976 . He died of esophageal cancer in 1995 . Early life and college . Gallagher was born and grew up in Ironton , Ohio , a town on the state ' s border with Kentucky along the Ohio River . He played three sports at his local Ironton High School . After graduating , he attended Kentucky Wesleyan College and played on the school ' s football team . Coaching career . Gallagher got his first coaching job at Pedro High School in Pedro , Ohio near his hometown of Ironton after playing briefly for the Ironton Tanks , a semi - professional football team , in 1930 . He spent two years there before becoming the head football and basketball coach at Ironton High School in 1933 . While at Ironton , he coached future Chicago Bears star halfback George McAfee as the team won the state football championship in 1935 . Gallagher left Ironton in 1940 to take a job as an assistant coach for the football , basketball and baseball teams at the College of William & Mary in Virginia . After two years at William & Mary , Gallagher enlisted in the U . S . Navy in 1942 during World War II . He rose to the rank of lieutenant commander before his discharge in 1945 , when he returned to the college and became head baseball and basketball coach in the 1946 – 1947 season . His basketball team had a 14 – 12 win - loss record that year , and his baseball team was 9 – 9 . He was hired later in 1947 by Paul Brown , the head coach of the Cleveland Browns in the All - America Football Conference ( AAFC ) , as an ends coach . Gallagher replaced Red Conkright , who had taken a job as an assistant with the Buffalo Bills . He spent three seasons in Cleveland , tutoring receivers including Mac Speedie and Dante Lavelli , who was later inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame . He also served as a scout for Cleveland . The Browns won the AAFC championship in each of Gallagher ' s years with the team . Gallagher took a job in 1950 as head football coach at Santa Clara University in California . He had previously turned down a head coaching job at the University of Pittsburgh , and took over at Santa Clara for Leonard Casanova when Casanova accepted the Pittsburgh position instead . " Naturally I regret leaving the Browns , " Gallagher said at the time . " I realize it is because of my association with Paul Brown that I am getting this opportunity . It looks like an interesting year in professional football coming up and I ' d like to be part of it . But everyone has ambitions to become a head coach and this looks like a good opportunity . " He was given a three - year contract paying a $ 12 , 500 salary . At Santa Clara , Gallagher brought in Mike Scarry , a former Browns center and Western Reserve University coach , as an assistant . He also hired Ed Ulinski , another former Browns player , as an assistant coach . The Santa Clara Broncos football team had an 8 – 18 – 2 record in three seasons under Gallagher . Gallagher resigned in late 1952 and was expected to rejoin the Browns to do scouting and personnel work . He was hired on a temporary basis to help Cleveland assistant Weeb Ewbank prepare for the NFL Draft . In February 1953 , however , he signed as an end coach for the NFL ' s Chicago Cardinals after considering a competing offer to assist Pappy Waldorf at the University of California . Gallagher spent just one season in Chicago , returning to the Browns in 1954 as a part - time scout and personnel expert . He spent the rest of his time working in the sales department of Luria Brothers , a steel dealer . The Browns hired him full - time the following season , promoting him to head the team ' s scouting department . The Cleveland won the NFL championship in 1954 and 1955 . Administrative career and hall of fame . Gallagher remained with the Browns until 1960 , when he was appointed the general manager of the Buffalo Bills , a team in the new American Football League . He was given a $ 25 , 000 salary . In 1967 , Gallagher was expected to rejoin Brown , who had been fired as Cleveland ' s coach in 1963 and was starting a new team called the Cincinnati Bengals . He instead took a job as a scout and personnel executive for the San Francisco 49ers that August . Gallagher stayed in San Francisco for less than a year , taking over in 1968 as director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton , Ohio after the death of its first director , Dick McCann . He retired in 1976 and said he would spend winters in Florida and the summers in Canton . He died of esophageal cancer in 1995 .