Aged 16, he left Lanarkshire junior league side Tannochside Athletic to join Hattonrigg Thistle.
As a spectator he attended to watch Bellshill Athletic (who had previously rejected Gallacher and James for being too small) playing St Mirren Juniors.
[9] Gallacher hit the Glasgow equaliser with a fine header with two minutes remaining in the 1–1 draw.
At the time Queens were in their second season after formation and, cup games aside, played only local fixtures.
Rejecting the opportunity of an international trial game at Methil, Gallacher made his Queen of the South debut aged 17 against St Cuthbert Wanderers on 29 January 1921.
In the 5–2 victory over Dumbarton, the Herald and Courier said of Gallacher, "From the first kick until the last, he showed exceptional dash and had the unusual record of scoring all five goals.
On 19 September 1921 he made his senior Scottish Football League debut in a 2–0 defeat to Raith Rovers.
The next season they finished second again, with Gallacher hitting five in a 6–1 win over Clyde that briefly had the Diamonds top of the league.
Silverware arrived when Airdrie beat Hibernian 2–0 in the 1924 Scottish Cup Final to claim the club's first senior trophy.
[1] From the very first match he played in England he was a marked man, hacked and elbowed and gouged by defenders acting on instructions to stop him scoring at all costs.
[1] The following season, 1926–27, 23-year-old Gallacher was given the captaincy, and his powerful leadership qualities took Newcastle to the League Championship for the first time since 1909, although his criticism of some of the less talented players in the team did not go unnoticed.
Sunderland were still in contention until they were beaten 1–0 at St James' Park on 19 March before a then record crowd of 67,211.
[1] A chant reportedly once sung at St James' Park in relation to Hughie went as follows; Gallacher joined David Calderhead's Chelsea as part of a £25,000 spending spree which also saw the club sign his fellow Scottish forwards Alex Jackson and Alec Cheyne; such was his popularity at Newcastle, when Chelsea visited St James' Park, the home of Newcastle United, that season the attendance was a record 68,386 with several thousand more locked out.
The Blues laid siege to the United goal in the second half, but were unable to make a breakthrough and the Geordies went on to lift the trophy.
[1] Gallacher's time there was also marred by suspensions for indiscipline – including a two-month ban for swearing at a referee – and off-pitch controversies.
He was taken under the wing of fellow Scotsmen Dally Duncan and an old Newcastle United friend, Jimmy Boyd, and was said to have been as good as gold during his Baseball Ground days.
over suspected financial irregularities, one of the accusations was that manager George Jobey had paid Gallacher illegal signing-on fees.
The player refused to admit it, but Jobey, manager of the Rams since 1925, received a ten-year suspension for his part in the scandal.
)[4][15] When the Scottish FA undertook a tour Canada & America in 1935, Gallacher scored ten times six matches for an unofficial Scotland XI against club & representative sides.
[16] Gallacher continued to live in Gateshead, trying a number of careers, one of them being a sports journalist, a role that led to him being banned from St James' Park for his outspoken remarks about Newcastle United.
[6][8] With no savings from his footballing days, he took numerous unremarkable jobs, often menial, to earn a living to support his family.
Many people spoke to him including Newcastle players and staff offering support and assuring him that no one would believe the press and their scandalous statements.
A local reporter friend said he looked like 'a traumatised man walking in a glassy-eyed dream'.
[8] On 11 June, he posted a short message to the Gateshead Coroner expressing his regrets at what he had caused, adding that 'if he had lived to be 100 he would never be able to forgive himself for having hurt Mattie'.
[8] On the day of his death, two young trainspotters watched him for half an hour pacing backwards and forwards on a footbridge over the London-Edinburgh railway line at Low Fell, Gateshead.
When the effects of his father's suicide had subsided Mattie returned home to stay with his elder brother Hughie, before moving to South Africa in 1965.
[8] On 13 December 2021, a brick memorial tribute was unveiled to Gallacher at Derby County's Pride Park Stadium.
[20] Owing to his importance in the history of Newcastle United, it was suggested on Tyneside that a similar memorial could be erected at St James' Park.