Not many people know that Karen Gallagher, Wisconsin’s head softball coach, played professional softball, or that during that same time she had a scholarship to play college basketball, or that she played softball in China, and chances are slim she would ever bring these experiences up herself.
Coach Gallagher describes herself as a regular tomboy as she recalls always being outside playing sports, mainly baseball, with her brother and his friends. As she grew up, there were not many opportunities for girls to play organized sports. The majority of the time she played on boy’s teams, until her family moved to the Chicago area.
It wasn’t until her senior year of high school that her school even had a girl’s softball team, so meanwhile she played in club leagues and put her time into volleyball and one of her other passions — basketball.
After high school, Gallagher was offered a basketball scholarship from a small private college in the Chicago area. She played there for two seasons, but it was another opportunity that caused the excitement in her young life.
“I was reading the paper one day and I saw that they were going to start this women’s professional league and that they were having try-outs, so my dad was like, ‘You are going to go to this just to see what you can do and see how things will pan out,'” Gallagher said. “I went into it thinking it would just be a great experience and that I wouldn’t make it.”
As it turns out, Gallagher had underestimated herself, as the pool of players, 500 women to start with, was slowly cut round after round until she found herself in the running to make a team.
“They called my parents and said, ‘We would like to talk to you because we think Karen would be an awesome asset to the Chicago team,'” she said. “They pretty much said, ‘She’s on the team,’ but I wasn’t 18 [years old] yet, so I had to get my parents’ permission to sign a contract and do everything a professional athlete would do.”
Before she could even vote, Gallagher was playing professional softball for the Chicago Ravens as the Women’s Professional Softball League’s youngest player. After playing just one season, the shortstop was named to the league’s All-Star game.
“One day I got an envelope from our general manager and it said I made the All-Star team, and it was kind of a dream come true. I got to play with some of the best softball players to play the game,” Gallagher said.
Her second season she was traded to the Connecticut Falcons where she won the World Series Championship for each of the three years she played with the team.
“I was so excited, I just knew it was an opportunity of a lifetime,” Gallagher said. “The average age of most players in the league was 25 or 26 and there I was 17 years old. I just watched and listened and learned. I played with the best players in the world; these women are in the American Softball Association Hall of Fame. They were athletes that were just awesome and now a lot of them are great Division I coaches.”
In addition to playing professional softball, Gallagher also went to school during the year, as her softball league only ran from mid-May until September. After two years at the small college she was attending in the Chicago area, she decided to transfer to Texas Women’s University. At TWU she had a friend who coached at the school and recommended to her that she transfer. Gallagher, who wanted a chance to get out of her comfort zone, packed her bags and headed to Texas.
She graduated from TWU in 1981 where she earned a degree in biomechanics and sociology.
After graduation she received a job coaching high school softball at Argo Community High School and teaching physical education, sociology, criminal justice and basically whatever the principal asked her to teach. Five years later she had compiled an 82-49 record and was approached with a job offer.
“A friend of my mine, Diane, who I went to school with down in Texas, called me and said she was taking over the program at the University of California. She knew I had played at a high level of softball and said, ‘What do you think about coming out there and coaching with me?,” Gallagher said.
Somewhat unsure about if she was going to stay out in California, Gallagher took a one-year sabbatical to see how she liked being an assistant coach in the Pac-10.
“Seven years later I was still there and I loved the experience,” Gallagher said. “It taught me a lot about what this level (Division I softball) was about, and I was thrown in with some of the best teams in the country.”
After six years with the program and three College World Series appearances, Gallagher decided it was time for her to steer her own ship.
She interviewed with some smaller Midwest schools and with Stanford, but in the end it was the Wisconsin job that caught her eye.
“I knew within my own heart that I wanted to coach in two conferences and that was the Pac-10 and the Big Ten,” Gallagher said. “I always felt like those were the best schools academically, outside the Ivy League. Women’s athletics were well supported in the Big Ten, and I wanted to come back closer to home where my family was.”
After beating out over 100 other applicants, Gallagher was chosen to start the UW softball program from scratch.
“There was nothing here, there was no office, no phone and no pencils. Basically we have no team and no field, I knew this obviously, but it was a big challenge,” Gallagher said. “They also hired me late, at the end of September and I was expected to field a team that following spring, and the big recruiting time is in the summer, so I really didn’t have much time.”
In her first season at UW, her team went 14-39-1, but the next year she was able to improve the team’s record to 32-25.
It was hard at first to get the good recruits, but Gallagher emphasized to her recruits that it was a new program and they could be excited about building something and putting the program on the map.
Her teams have steadily improved in conference play, as last year the team placed the highest any team in UW history had with a fourth place finish in the Big Ten. In the past three years the team has made a Big Ten Tournament appearance, and in the past two years the team has made a NCAA Tournament appearance.
Gallagher says the biggest thing that has changed within the program over the last eight years has been the level of competitiveness and that once a program starts winning expectations start to change.
However, it is not the wins or the honors that make Gallagher happy.
“It’s just little things, it is not the accolades or any trophies, it is just the fact that seven years ago there was nothing and now there is a program that is well recognized throughout the nation and the Big Ten,” Gallagher said. “I feel very respected and I feel like we have done a good job and we have done it right and think we have done it in a healthy way.”
While Gallagher is firm in doing things the right way and respecting the rules, she is also firm with her expectations of her players.
“I think on the field I always expect my players to give me 100 percent and know that they are putting their best out on the line. I am not a yeller, I think yelling is just like the parents who yell all the time and it falls on deaf ears,” Gallagher said. “You are dealing with motivated young people that you believe are passionate and care about what they are doing and you are asking them for a lot of time and commitment to build this program.”
However, even though Gallagher is tough on the field, she describes herself off the field as pretty laid-back and extremely easy going.
“I don’t need to be entertaining and I am not always looking for excitement in life,” Gallagher said. “I love writing poetry, talking with my family, and cooking. I am a quiet individual and when I have my peace I really, really enjoy it.”
Some of Gallagher’s life philosophies are just as calm as she is.
“Life is as difficult as you make it. I think things are simple in life and if you complicate them, then they will be complicated,” Gallagher said. “Softball is really just a simple game that is meant to be played hard and played with passion.”
And Gallagher has been one of those players who played the game with passion and through her coaching she keeps that passion alive.
