I had tuned in to CSPAN radio last Sat., and heard Tricky Dicky talking to someone about football. I gradually realized that he was talking to George Allen, the Redskins coach in the early 70s, who took 'em to the Superbowl.
It must've been one of those secretly-taped calls, which are released to the public in batches every couple years.
It was interesting to hear them talk, mostly about football. Apparently, Pres. Nixon had called Allen (probably to congratulate about something). The call was dated 8 Oct. 72.
It was interesting to hear Nixon comment about Allen's denying the press access. (Not sure what the circumstances were.) Nixon wholeheartedly agreed with Allen's decision and criticized the press with some rough language. (what would you expect?)
I can't remember the last time I'd heard Allen's voice. Before coaching the Redskins, he coached the L.A. Rams. In fact, his eldest son, George Allen, Jr. went to my h.s. in SoCal and was the Q-back of the football team. (Jr. is now a senator for Va.)
Coach Allen eventually moved back to SoCal. (Don't know if they kept their Calif. house when they lived in Va.) He liked living in Palos Verdes.
I think he died while coaching a small school somewhere (in Pa.?). I guess he was of retirement age, but could never step away from coaching. (Of course these days, old coaches can make NFL comebacks.)
A couple years back, his daughter wrote a memoir about growing up in a football coach's family. I read an excerpt in the NYT magazine, and based on that I felt kinda sorry for her since she didn't seem much into football. I'm not sure what her interests were, as an adolescent, but it seems that she didn't get much support from her folks. It seems that everything revolved around her father and the team, especially its weekly fate during football season.
Posted by raacluse at February 3, 2004 07:06 PMGeorge allen coached the cal state football team in Long Beach,ca. George jr. had a wild and crazy brother named Greg. also played football in high school. Some say he was the person who invented the word
"geek" in reference of nerds
George Allen Jr. was a rather notorious racist
at PVHS. He once attempted to start some kind of problem between the students of PVHS and Morningside HS. He vandalized the grounds of PVHS with the intent of pinning the blame on Morningside, however, he misspelled "Monarchs" on some crude racist grafitti and was caught that very day.
His younger brother was a notorious waster and lout. I wouldn't give you 2 cents for either of them then or now.
Posted by: JK at September 24, 2004 06:31 PMthe racist graffitti was "DONKEY SCROTUM IN SARAN WRAP" ...AND THIS GUY WANTS TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT!
Posted by: ae. at October 23, 2005 11:49 AM