Pokey Allen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pokey Allen | ||
|---|---|---|
| Title | Head Coach | |
| College | Boise State | |
| Sport | Football | |
| Born | January 23, 1943 | |
| Place of birth |  Superior, Montana |
|
| Died | December 30, 1996 | |
| Place of death | Missoula, Montana | |
| Career highlights | ||
| Overall | 86-41-2 | |
| Coaching stats | ||
| College Football DataWarehouse | ||
| Playing career | ||
| 1961-1964 | Utah | |
| Position | quarterback/cornerback | |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | ||
| 1968-1972 1973-1976 1977-1982 1983-1984 1985 1986-1992 1993-1996 |
Simon Fraser University (assistant coach) Simon Fraser University (co-coach) University of Montana, Eastern Washington University, University of California, Berkeley (assistant coach) Los Angeles Express (USFL) (assistant coach) Portland Breakers (USFL) (assistant coach) Portland State (head coach) Boise State (head coach) |
|
Ernest Duncan "Pokey" Allen Jr. (January 23, 1943 – December 30, 1996) was a football player and coach.
Contents |
[edit] Playing career
Allen played collegiately at quarterback and cornerback at Utah, where he led the team to a 32-6 victory over West Virginia in the 1964 Liberty Bowl and was named the game's most valuable player.[1][2] Professionally, Allen played three seasons with the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League.[3]
[edit] Early coaching career
Allen began his coaching career in 1968 as an assistant coach with Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia.[4] Five years later, he was named co-coach of the team. In 1977, Allen became the assistant coach at Montana, followed by other assistant coaching positions with Eastern Washington University and Cal.[4]
In 1983, Allen signed on as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Express of the United States Football League. Two years later, he came to Portland, Oregon as defensive coordinator for the Portland Breakers.[4]
[edit] Portland State
In 1986, as the USFL folded, Allen took the head coaching job at Portland State. Allen coached the Vikings to its first football playoffs, including back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Division II national football championship in 1987 and 1988, though the team lost both games. He was named coach of the year in the Western Football Conference five times.[5]
Allen was as much noted for his personality as his coaching. He took part in a humorous series of television commercials to sell tickets for Portland State games, with stunts such as dancing the Hokey Pokey, betting a month's salary on attendance at the game, allowing fans to vote on whether to pick heads or tails at the coin toss, and most famously, a series of commercials in which Allen promised to have a meteor, an elephant, or himself (shot out of a cannon) land in the backyard of anyone not buying Portland State season tickets.[6][7]
[edit] Boise State
In 1992, Allen's Vikings defeated the Boise State Broncos 52-26. When Boise State went on to lose their final four games that season, coach Skip Hall was fired and Allen and his entire coaching staff were hired away from Portland State.[8]
In his second year at Boise State, he coached the Broncos into the NCAA Division I-AA national football championship, but the team lost to Youngstown State 24-14.
Allen kept his reputation for publicity stunts: during the run to the 1994 championship game, Allen challenged local supporters, promising to ride a horse in downtown Boise if Bronco Stadium were sold out. The stadium was sold out, and Allen kept his promise.[9]
[edit] Head Coaching Record
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl | Coaches# | AP° | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Portland State | 6-5-0 | |||||||
| 1987 | Portland State | 11-2-1 | |||||||
| 1988 | Portland State | 11-3-1 | |||||||
| 1989 | Portland State | 9-4-0 | |||||||
| 1990 | Portland State | 6-5-0 | |||||||
| 1991 | Portland State | 11-3-0 | |||||||
| 1992 | Portland State | 9-4-0 | |||||||
| Portland State: | 63-26-2 | ||||||||
| 1993 | Boise State | 3-8-0 | |||||||
| 1994 | Boise State | 13-2-0 | |||||||
| 1995 | Boise State | 7-4-0 | |||||||
| 1996 | Boise State | 2-10-0 | |||||||
| Boise State: | 25-24-0 | ||||||||
| Total: | 88-50-2 | ||||||||
| †Indicates BCS bowl game. #Rankings from final Coaches Poll of the season. | |||||||||
[edit] Cancer and legacy
Shortly after the 1994 championship game, Allen was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of muscle cancer. He returned to coach the Broncos' 1995 season, but after a recurrence of cancer a year later, took a leave of absence until the final two games of the 1996 season. He resigned at the end of the 1996 season, and died at the age of 53, three weeks after coaching his last game.[1]
Boise State's come-from-behind, trick play-laden victory in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, which brought even more national attention to the program that Allen helped build, came 10 years to the day after Allen's burial.[9]
Allen was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Pokey Allen, 53, Football Coach", New York Times, December 31, 1996 (subscription required). Retrieved on 2008-04-10.
- ^ Sorenson, Mike. "Atlantic City contest quietly became historically significant", Deseret Morning News, December 20, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
- ^ BC Lions All-Time Roster. BC Lions. Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
- ^ a b c Wheeler, Ken. "Pokey Allen 1943-1996: A short life lived to its fullest", The Oregonian, December 30, 1996.
- ^ a b Pokey Allen. Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
- ^ Goe, Ken. "The same old Pokey", The Oregonian, December 6, 1991.
- ^ Frei, Terry. "It's just about kickoff time for PSU stunts", The Oregonian, August 25, 1990.
- ^ A Brief Look: Portland State Rivalry. Scout.com (October 3, 2005). Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
- ^ a b Anderson, John Gottberg. "Oh Boise!", The Bend Bulletin, May 6, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
|
|||||
|
|||||
