Bill Gallo joins General Von Steingrabber in the bleachers

May 11, 2011 10:06 AM

Bill Gallo, longtime NY Daily News Sports Cartoonist, is dead at age 88. If you grew up in the NYC area anytime from the the 50s until this April, you've probably seen one of Gallo's cartoons in the Daily News. Although he covered all sports and their fans, blue collar sports like boxing and baseball were his real love. Gallo was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, NY as part of the Class of 2001 and some of his work hangs in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

Syracuse University has a collection of his papers. Some of his best work is available in DRAWING A CROWD: Bill Gallo's Greatest Sports Moments.

posted by tommasz (12 comments total)

"He was more the Daily News than anybody who ever lived. " -- Mike Lupica.
posted by Superfrankenstein at 10:53 AM on May 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

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posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 11:00 AM on May 11, 2011

I grew up in New York, and delivered the Daily News for 3 years as a kid. While the New York Times is always the "paper of record" on a national scale, among working class New Yorkers, the Daily News is what you'll find most people reading on the bus in the outer boroughs, and Bill Gallo's cartoons are a huge part of why that is the case. His character "General von Steingrabber" (a caricature of late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner) is so widely recognized in New York it's a bit of a shibboleth - if you grew up in NY, you probably know exactly who the General is, and if you don't chances are pretty good that you're from somewhere else.

New York has lost a true giant today.

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posted by deadmessenger at 11:07 AM on May 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Daily News was on the breakfast table next to the Sugar Frosted Flakes when I was a teenager and Gallo's cartoon was the first thing I turned to. I was amazed he was still drawing right up until April of this year

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posted by tommasz at 11:14 AM on May 11, 2011

When I lived in NY, I'd always buy The Daily News over any other paper. At least half of that was for the sports section, and at least half of that was because of Gallo.

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posted by Navelgazer at 11:26 AM on May 11, 2011

I grew up with his cartoons, in fact, I got most of my sports news through Gallo's stuff, since I wasn't nearly enough of a fan to actually read the sports section articles.

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posted by bashos_frog at 11:49 AM on May 11, 2011

Just in case any non-New Yorkers (like me) are curious (like me) about what this guy's cartoons looked like, the Daily News has a gallery.
posted by marxchivist at 1:49 PM on May 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thx, marxchivist. (I came here to post that too.)

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posted by bodega at 1:52 PM on May 11, 2011

Yes, thanks marxchivist. I succumbed to the assumption everyone would know his material and shouldn't have.
posted by tommasz at 1:56 PM on May 11, 2011

I saw this morning when I bought my morning coffee. He will be missed.
posted by jonmc at 5:16 PM on May 11, 2011

Growing up in Connecticut, we'd read the Daily News every weekday (and the Times on Sundays).

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posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 5:30 PM on May 11, 2011

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posted by vrakatar at 6:02 PM on May 11, 2011