Thursday, July 13, 2017

Gene Gallette (Gillette) Identified

No one I could find knew anything about this Gene Gillette who played for the Caps. I couldn't find much either when looking at the players of the 1946-47 season of the BAA, so I chalked him up as having "incomplete" information and moved on.

Months later, I was doing some research on basketball player Frank Kudelka, another player from the Bay Area. I happened to notice in a box score of one of Kudelka's basketball games while in the military that there was a player on a Coast Guard team named "Gallette." Noticing that "Gallette" is similar to the unknown Washington Capitols player "Gillette" and also from the Bay Area, I looked into this possibility of being Gillette. Gallette played for various teams around the Bay Area, but was he actually Gene Gillette?

And then I found this obituary from the San Mateo Times:



Looks like Gene Gallatte is the name of the mystery player, not Gene Gillette.

I am going to take a second to pat myself on the back.

Gene Gallette
1919-1976

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