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Baylor Gallagher knows his way around a grid – the kind on the football field and the one filled with clues. Sophomore year he enrolled in Dr. Neville Fogarty’s crossword puzzle class on a whim, and quickly found himself hooked.
“I took this class out of pure curiosity as it was a concept I had never taken a deep dive into. After taking this course, though, I quickly realized that I enjoyed the intricacies in the wordplay and other puzzle construction techniques involved in the creation of crosswords,” said Gallagher, who was the starting punter for the Captains.
Soon the business major was creating original puzzles in his spare time. It became a much needed creative outlet for him, one that helped him balance the demands of classes and football.
“Creating crossword puzzles definitely filled up my downtime between all my classes, practices and games,” said Gallagher ‘25. “It gave me something fun to do that didn’t involve schoolwork, and became a hobby I really enjoy.”
Gallagher helped lead Christopher Newport to its first ever conference championship during his junior year, and was named to the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) First-Team All-Conference and All-Academic honors. While that remains at the top of his college highlight reel, what followed during senior year also felt like a pretty big win: the Los Angeles Times selected one of his crossword puzzles for publication.
“It was only the second time I’d ever tried to submit a puzzle I had created. Being accepted by a paper like the L.A. Times is really cool and unexpected,” he said.
Numbers and words play on the same team when it comes to crossword creation, so it’s not surprising to Fogarty, a senior lecturer in CNU’s Math Department, that his popular crossword class attracts students from nearly every major.
“Crosswords are as much about logic as language,” said Fogarty, noting he will be offering the crossword course again this spring. “Creating puzzles lets students flex their logic and problem solving skills, while also creating something unique.”
In addition to teaching the subject, Fogarty has been prolific in not only creating crossword puzzles, but having them published in prestigious publications. This month, he celebrated his 13th puzzle placement in The New York Times.
“It’s a privilege to know what you created is going to be solved by millions of people around the world,” he said.
In 2007, when Fogarty was himself a college student, he appeared as a contestant on the inaugural episode of “Merv Griffin's Crossword Show.
“It challenged my ability to think quickly and creatively under pressure. It was really fun, and I ended up winning,” said Fogarty.
Although the show went off the air after its first season, Fogarty believes the enduring appeal of crossword puzzles, which have been around for over a century, combined with the recent popularity of “mini” puzzles, like Wordle, opens up an even broader audience for young creators such as Gallagher.
“This crossword puzzle course not only had a big impact on me personally, but it also showed the wide diversity of courses offered at CNU. My class taught me how to challenge concepts and engage in thought-based discussions,” said Gallagher, who has graduated and is now working in a management assistant position with Enterprise Mobility. “I really gained so much from my time at Christopher Newport. I definitely see myself continuing to create crosswords, and finding out how many creative themes I can produce. I’m just getting started.”