Nick Gallo was a star wrestler for Deer Park High School and Hall of Fame coach Ed Luksik.

Gallo placed second in the Section XI tournament at 105 pounds in 1972 before winning the county championship and placing fourth in the New York state tournament at 112 pounds in 1973.

He attended Hofstra University and it was a a collegiate wrestler that he had his greatest success.

As a sophomore he shocked the experts at the NCAA Division I Championships with a fourth-place finish. He finished second in the East Coast Conference tournament as a junior, but was eliminated in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

The summer before his senior year, Gallo earned an alternate spot on the 1976 United States Olympic team.

He returned to Hofstra and hit his stride, starring in the East/West All-Star Meet and entering the NCAAs as the number-one seed at 126 pounds. He wrestled so impressively throughout the tournament that he not only won the national title, but was also named the tournament's Outstanding Wrestler. Gallo became Hofstra's fifth NCAA place-winner and only champion.

Gallo wrestled for the New York Athletic Club and Bill Farrell, a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, during his post college career.

He was a silver medalist in the 1980 World Cup, Pan American Trials Champion in 1979, and a member of the 1976 and 1980 Olympic freestyle wrestling teams.

Gallo became head coach at Hofstra in 1980 and led the team to five conference titles while coaching a pair of All-Americans, Ed Pidgeon and Peter Capone.

Hofstra honored him with the prestigious Estabrook Awared and he was among the first inductees into the Hofstra Hall of Fame.