High School/college
Growing up in Roxana, Illinois, Gallatin had taken interest in all sports and has been quoted as saying, "Competition has always been my cup of tea." His drive for competition was amplified during his first year in high school as he attended Wood River High School from 1940–41. Since Roxana and some other outlying communities like Bethalto had no high school of their own at the time, all the athletes in the area attended Wood River, thus increasing the level of competition among them for varsity positions. The following year, however, Roxana got its own high school. He graduated from Roxana High School in 1944, and was granted a basketball scholarship by Northeast Missouri State Teachers' College (now known as Truman State University). But after graduating from Roxana High School, he enlisted in the United States Navy and served until the end of World War II.
His very first day at Northeast Missouri, he met a girl by the name of Bev. They were married about a year after college. He said he would not have been able to accomplish everything he has done in his life without her. Initially, he said he never thought he would play college basketball because, although he did well in school, he did not know whether he would qualify academically for college. In any event, as a Northeast Missouri State Teachers' College basketball player he would go on to average 12.9 points per game and lead his team to a 59-4 record and two appearances in the NAIA tournament. Despite his fear of ever being able to get into college, he earned his bachelor's degree from Northeast Missouri in only two years and would later receive his master's degree in physical education from the University of Iowa in 1954.
He performed well enough in college basketball that the New York Knicks selected him in the 1948 NBA draft. "It was a dream come true. I really didn't know what to expect; it was my first plane ride, from St. Louis to New York. Here I am a boy from Wood River, a country boy, and going to the Big Apple," Gallatin explained. "All I knew was that I loved to play basketball, and the Knicks had taken me with their number one choice. So I knew that they thought I had the kind of abilities they were looking for."
Read more about this topic: Harry Gallatin
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