John Allen

A 1952 graduate of Albertville High School, John Allen participated in football, basketball and baseball. He excelled in baseball as an All-Star in the Lions East-West game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham.

Allen put his higher education on hold while he entered the workforce and played independent baseball. Then it was off to the Navy, where he excelled in baseball and football. The sport of baseball was Allen’s ticket to a higher education at Snead State and Jacksonville State. He was selected All-Conference pitcher in 1960 and co-captain of the ’61 Gamecocks.

Allen’s first job out of college was as athletic director for the Anniston City Recreation Board in 1962. The Anniston Board of Education hired him in 1964 to be the head baseball and assistant football coach. The Birmingham Post Herald named his Anniston baseball squad state champions with a record of 15-1.

After one season as a head coach, Allen headed to Guntersville with a state championship on his resume. Bill Oliver hired him as an assistant in football and head baseball coach for the Marshall County Wildcats. When Oliver left to become an assistant at Auburn University following the 1965 season, Allen stayed on with football coach Jack Hicks for 1966.

In 1967, Marshall County Hall of Fame coach Billy Hugh Hudson started a new football program at Muscle Shoals and was looking for assistance. John Allen and another Marshall County Hall of Fame member, Gilmore Brannon, coached with Billy Hudson. Allen and Brannon then left Muscle Shoals to become head football coaches.

Allen served as the Geraldine head football coach from 1969-75. He was twice named, in 1971 and ’72, the DeKalb County Coach of the Year. He had a standout year in 1973 when he coached in both the Alabama All-Star football game and the Lions Club East-West All-Star baseball game. That same year, he served as a counselor at Lions Club Boys State. When Allen arrived at Geraldine, he took over a program that had won only once in three years (1-28-1). His Geraldine record was 28-29-3.

Pisgah’s new principal in 1975 was John Allen. One year later, he was back into coaching at a program that was still in its infancy, the Douglas Eagles. The season before Allen arrived, Douglas was 0-10 with only 13 players remaining at the end of the season. His first team, at 6-3-1, had the best record in the first seven years of Douglas football. The coach finished five years of coaching the Eagles with a 20-29-1 record, before moving into administration for the remainder of his career. He served as assistant principal at Douglas High School, before becoming principal at Douglas Elementary. Today, Allen continues to serve the educational community as an elected member of the Marshall County Board of Education.