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Chuck Gallina (Formerly of Auburn University) – CoSIDA 25-Year Award
by David Housel, retired Auburn AD/SID, CoSIDA Hall of Fame
Gallina, currently serving on the marketing and communications staff at the University of Memphis, is the former Director of Communications at Auburn University and will receive a 25-Year Award from CoSIDA in June during the 2018 convention in National Harbor, Maryland.
Gallina in his Auburn athletics office.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw
Chuck Gallina.
It was in the summer of 1988. Chuck and his parents had come unannounced into the SID office after his pre-college sessions, Camp War Eagle, as they call it today.
His father introduced himself and said they were there because their son Chuck was coming to Auburn in the fall, loved sports, loved Auburn and wanted to work in the SID office. (How many of you have heard those words?)
Chuck was wearing white tennis shorts — the short kind — white tennis shoes and a white polo, looking every bit the freshman he was soon to be.
That’s fine and good, I said, but I want to hear it from Chuck. I wanted to be sure this was Chuck’s dream not his father’s dream for Chuck. “Mr. Housel,” he said, probably for the only time in his life, “I love Auburn, and I want to work for Auburn. I want to be a part of Auburn.”
Then he described his passion for Auburn, all the clippings he had, all the programs he had, the efforts he made to listen to Auburn games on the radio in the far-away city of Memphis, and the way he stood up for Auburn in the inevitable high school arguments about favorite sports teams.
I didn’t even know if he was shaving yet, but for some reason I was intrigued by this fuzzy-cheeked kid, his love of Auburn and his desire to be part of Auburn. Auburn was clearly in his blood.
I told him to come by when he got to school and we’d let him volunteer to work. Before we paid him, we were going to see what this young man was made of.
It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Chuck rapidly became one of the best student assistants we ever had, and very soon, even in his freshman year, he was given responsibility for individual teams.
He did a good job, giving his all to whatever team he was assigned, but his greatest love was basketball, ahead of even football. And at Auburn, that’s saying something.
The only things Chuck loved better than Auburn Basketball, were his family, his dog Baby, later Putter, and maybe the St. Louis Cardinals.
I have often wondered who Chuck would have pulled for if his beloved Cardinals played Auburn in baseball. I’m glad I never had to find out.
Chuck worked with five basketball coaches, Tommy Joe Eagles with whom he became very close, Cliff Ellis, Jeff Lebo, Tony Barbee and Bruce Pearl in a span of 25 years.
He probably saw more bad basketball than any SID in history. He once figured his won-loss record and it was so abysmal that even he had to laugh about it.
In a note of irony, in the first season after he retired, Auburn had its best team in 20 years, winning a share of the SEC title and playing in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 15 years.
Chuck deserved to be a part of that, but like Moses entering the Promised Land, he never had that opportunity. By the time the magical season began, he had retired from Auburn and taken a position in university public relations at the University of Memphis.
He moved home to Memphis to be closer to his widowed Mom and his beloved nieces and nephews. His Facebook page is filled with pictures of them and his beloved dog Putter, and Chuck looks happier than ever before, even happier than he did when beating Alabama.
Chuck graduated in 1991 and went to Memphis where he worked with football. Those Tigers had an excellent kicker that year and Chuck was assigned to handle his promotion for the Lou Groza Award, presented annually to the nation’s most outstanding placekicker.
Chuck did a good job, so good that Memphis’ Joe Allison beat out Auburn’s Scott Etheridge. He had taken what we taught him and kicked our ass. It was time to hire him back, which we did.
For the next 25 years he was a stalwart in Auburn’s SID office — a stalwart — one of the best, most dedicated and conscientious workers in whole athletics department.
He is missed. Auburn’s loss is Memphis’, and his family’s gain.
He is no longer a fuzzy-cheeked incoming freshman, but wherever he goes, whatever he does, his love of all things Auburn, especially Auburn basketball, will remain.
That’s a permanent. That’s a given.
That’s Chuck Gallina.