GALLAGHER THE GENIUS
How he skipped Grade 7
The Canadiens are using Brendan Gallagher to promote a new University Nights ticket special this season for Tuesday games at the Bell Centre. Students aged 18 and older can pay $39 for a ticket to sit in the Coors Light Zone and a free beer at the game.
On Sunday the Canadiens tweeted three school photos of a young Gallagher. In the post they wrote: “This young scholar was so advanced in his studies that he skipped Grade 7. We love smart kids so much we’ve launched University Nights at the Bell Centre for all Tuesday games.”
Gallagher did indeed skip Grade 7, but was reluctant at first to say why after Monday’s practice at the Bell Centre.
“I don’t want it to be on record of why I skipped Grade 7,” Gallagher said with a big smile. “It really bugs my older sister.”
After a couple more questions about it, Gallagher finally gave in and told the story.
It turns out that Gallagher’s family moved from Alberta to B.C. after he finished Grade 6 because his father, Ian, had been hired as director of the new Delta Hockey Academy at South Delta Secondary School. In Alberta, high school starts in Grade 7, but in B.C. it begins in Grade 8, and Gallagher’s father wanted his son to be part of his new hockey academy. So Gallagher was asked by South Delta Secondary School to answer what he remembers now as some “common sense” questions.
“I think I passed … I must have,” Gallagher said. “And I got to skip Grade 7.
“My older sister has always thought she was the brains of the family,” Gallagher said with a smile. “But since I skipped Grade 7, I don’t let her forget that I actually finished one year before her. I use it to get under her skin a little bit. It’s been an ongoing joke for a few years.”
Erin Gallagher graduated from the UBC Sauder School of Business and is a senior cost accountant at STEMCELL Technologies in Vancouver. Gallagher’s younger sister, Breanne, attends the University of Calgary, where she also plays soccer. His younger brother, Nolan, works in marketing.
Gallagher said his best subjects in school were math and science, in part because his father was a biology teacher and could help him. His mother, Della, is a physiotherapist.
The class that gave Gallagher the most problems was French, after he started Grade 8 in B.C. He had never taken a French class in Alberta, and when he started Grade 8, all the other kids had been studying the language since Grade 1. The teacher spoke only French in the classroom.
“I had never heard it in my life, so I sat there for two weeks trying to figure it out,” Gallagher recalled. “Didn’t tell my parents, didn’t tell my councillor … nothing. Just sat there. All of a sudden, I showed up and there was a test — but I didn’t know because she was speaking in French the whole time. So I did the test and somehow I got 13 per cent on the test. I was actually impressed with it ... I don’t know how I got 13 per cent.
“I had to take my test home to my dad and I was like: ‘I need to get out of this class ... I don’t understand,’ ” Gallagher said. “So I got out of the French class.”
The other tough part about skipping Grade 7 was the fact the other kids in Grade 8 were so much bigger than Gallagher.
“I was really small … like really, really small,” he said. “So it was weird walking around the hallways. But I did fine. Grades weren’t a problem for me. I was always decent in school. Obviously, if there were a problem my dad wouldn’t have been all that happy or impressed with me, so I had to make sure my grades got kept up and I got to stay in the hockey camp.”
Gallagher has never let his lack of size stop him on the ice, either. After leading the Canadiens with a career-high 31 goals and 54 points last season, the 5-foot-9 Gallagher is tied with the 5-foot9 Paul Byron for the team lead in goals this season with four heading into Tuesday night’s game against the Calgary Flames at the Bell Centre (7:30 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio).
When asked what career he would have pursued if he hadn’t become a pro hockey player, Gallagher said: “Probably something in hockey. It’s weird. Everyone goes to university, colleges. They get degrees. Our only degree is in hockey … it’s what I’ve learned my whole life. So really, the only real knowledge I have is in this sport.”
If the Canadiens locker-room were a classroom, who would be the smartest kid?
“I skipped Grade 7,” Gallagher said with a smile. “So it’s obvious.”
My older sister has always thought she was the brains of the family. But since I skipped Grade 7, I don’t let her forget that I actually finished one year before her.