View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
January 30, 2003updated 22 Nov 2022 1:01pm

Ken Gallacher: sports writer for Dundee Courier, Herald and Scottish Sun

By Press Gazette

One of Scotland’s best-known journalists, Ken Gallacher, has died in hospital in Glasgow, aged 63.

Gallacher had been operated upon on 10 January and bowel cancer was diagnosed but he appeared to be making a good recovery.

However, complications set in and he died on 16 January 16.

Born in Dundee, his career as a sports writer began on the Dundee Courier and he subsequently worked on the Scottish Daily Record; was chief sports writer of the Scottish Sun; joined the short-lived Sunday Scot and then freelanced before joining The Herald as chief football writer for eight years.

He took early retirement 18 months ago.

A prolific writer of soccer books, he was also planning to write a book on jazz.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

A dedicated, talented journalist with an awesome number of contacts and an ability for almost total recall, he was highly respected by the Scottish journalistic fraternity and the public at large – including most of the top names in British football.

A convivial man, he much enjoyed mixing pleasure with business and was something of a gourmet – partial to good food and fine wines although his favoured tipple was gin.

Herald colleague Ian Paul says: “There were very many strands to Ken’s talents, each in its way contrasting with the others.

“Aside from his family, Ken had real passions that consumed his energies throughout his life. Football, of course, was one, Dundee FC in particular, but there was also jazz –a subject on which he was a hugely respected expert, in the land of its birth just as much as on this side of the Atlantic.

“He was also a bibliophile with as voracious an appetite as has been my lot to have known. Typically his taste was universal, too, from novels to biographies, but with a decided leaning towards American literature.”

Gallacher was a past president and secretary of the Scottish Football Writers’ Association and a life member of the NUJ.

His funeral at Lenzie Old Parish Church was largely attended.

He is survived by his widow Moraig and daughters Judy, Jennifer and Jane.

Hamish Mackay

Hamish Mackay

Topics in this article :

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network