Gallico described how it felt to be knocked out by the heavyweight champion. Gallico's career was launched by an interview with boxer Jack Dempsey in which he asked Dempsey to spar with him.

In the same book, Gallico later explained why he thinks Jewish people are drawn to and good at basketball, 'The game places a premium on an alert, scheming mind, flashy trickiness, artful dodging and general smart aleckness.' In 1937, in Gallico's 'Farewell to Sport' he stated, 'For all her occasional beauty and unquestioned courage, there has always been something faintly ridiculous about the big-time lady athletes.' He first achieved notice in the 1920s as a sportswriter, sports columnist, and sports editor of the New York Daily News. Gallico's graduation from Columbia University was delayed to 1921, having served a year and a half in the United States Army during World War I. His father was the Italian concert pianist, composer and music teacher Paolo Gallico ( Trieste, – New York, July 6, 1955), and his mother, Hortense Erlich, came from Austria they had emigrated to New York in 1895. Gallico was born in New York City in 1897. He is perhaps best remembered for The Snow Goose, his most critically successful book, for the novel The Poseidon Adventure, primarily through the 1972 film adaptation, and for four novels about the beloved character of Mrs. Many of his works were adapted for motion pictures. Paul William Gallico (J– July 15, 1976) was an American novelist and short story and sports writer.

The abandoned gallico