Date Posted:01:13:36 05/18/04 Tue Author: Player Subject: Re: Holy Cross' Announcement In reply to:
HCFootballAlum00
's message, "Holy Cross' Announcement" on 15:17:30 05/17/04 Mon
I always remember the way Coach A would end off the pregame prayer. "Help keep us and our opponent free from injury... but most of all Lord, help us to play this great game of football, the way it's meant to be played." It was Coach A standard issue. That always got me goin' for the game more than anything else he said. It was the way he said it that put the meaning into it.
He loved the game of football so much. Not only was he able to teach the game of football, he was able to teach life lessons. No matter how undermatched we'd be, or not matter how far behind in a game we were, he would always be the one sayin' watch out in the second half, because we're gonna get after it. And his teams always seemed to have that second half surge. You could tell that what he preeched paralleled the way he lived. You saw him fighting day in and day out and he was an inspiration to all of us. Holy Cross has another #1 fan up high in the sky, and his name is Dan Allen.
My thoughts and prayers are with his family. God Bless
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Re: Jen Toland's Article from Today's T&G -- NTKHC64, 07:32:18 05/18/04 Tue
There follows a wonderful article that captures the character of Coach Allen. Of note to me was that of the current athletic department personnel only Coach Gibbons and Coach Oliver provided comments. Perhaps others were not available.
Holy Cross community remembers
Dan Allen
Dec. 7, 1955 - May 16, 2004
Jennifer Toland
T&G STAFF
Finals were over and summer break had mercifully begun, but for Holy Cross senior-to-be Tim McDonnell, escaping the hill for the comforts of his Harrison, N.Y., home could wait a couple of days. McDonnell wasn't about to miss his weekly visit with former Holy Cross football coach Dan Allen.
So, last Thursday, McDonnell and his classmate and teammate, Brad Capon, went to Allen's Westboro home as they've done at least twice, sometimes three times a week since November, when Allen was relieved of his coaching duties at HC as his health deteriorated.
McDonnell and Capon, as well as a number of other Holy Cross players, would often help the wheelchair-bound Allen into the car and off to his medical treatments. Other times, they would just spend time with him and chat.
"No one requested that they do that," former Holy Cross assistant coach Leo Fanning said. ""No one said, "You have to help.' They were there every Tuesday and Thursday morning. For them to do that, the man obviously meant something to them."
During that last visit with Allen four days ago, McDonnell and Capon did most of the talking.
"He was having trouble talking and he was having trouble breathing," said McDonnell, an HC wide receiver. "The only word he could really get out was "camp.' He wanted to know when camp started.
"He just sat and listened. He always wanted to know how things were going, how the guys were doing. How lifting was going, how spring practice went. I told him I was going home for a couple of weeks, but I'd be back to see him in two weeks. I knew he wasn't good on Thursday, but I thought I would have the chance to see him again."
Allen died peacefully, friends said, on Sunday afternoon at his home, surrounded by his wife, Laura, and their sons Mark, 19, and Taylor, 14, and 11-year-old daughter Danielle. He was only 48.
Family was what it was all about with Allen - his own above all else and his football family a close second. His staff and players often revered him as the father of the Holy Cross football program.
"He believed in proper attitude, togetherness and family," said Fanning, an assistant under Allen for nine years - eight at Holy Cross and one at Boston University - as well as a close friend and confidant.
"He didn't just preach it, he lived it. Through football, I saw his values in action and how his values and positiveness permeated the lives of kids and coaches. He was an impact player."
Allen announced last August he was suffering from multiple chemical sensitivity. The mysterious and debilitating illness took away his mobility from the neck down and forced him to use a wheelchair for the last year.
His condition had deteriorated greatly in recent weeks, but news of his death still hit those close to him hard.
"It seems unfair," said former Holy Cross player Tavares Brewington, who graduated in 2000 and recently completed law school at Boston College. "He was so young and you think about his family. It doesn't seem real. You'd see him at games in his wheelchair and you always believed he'd get better. With his attitude, you thought he'd persevere through it."
Allen's health problems became apparent early in the 2002 season when he began walking with a very visible limp. The season started tremendously as the Crusaders opened with a win over Division 1-A Army, but quickly went downhill. By the fifth game of the year, at Yale, Allen needed a golf cart to get from the locker room to the field.
The day after the Crusaders lost that game to the Bulldogs, Allen began a 3½-week medical leave of absence. Rumors and theories about what was ailing Allen began to swirl. He returned to coach the final four games of the '02 season, noticeably thinner and supporting himself with the aid of a cane.
Allen's condition worsened during the offseason and, by last summer, he was forced into a wheelchair. When the gossip persisted, Allen disclosed his problem in August.
He knew he was in for a fight, but Allen approached his illness the same way he approached raising his children, coaching his teams, both at HC and BU, and living his life - with an upbeat and positive attitude.
"It was truly amazing to see him the last two years," said former HC athletic director Ron Perry, who hired Allen as head coach in 1996 and maintains an office just down the hall from the football offices on the second floor of the fieldhouse. ""Never once did you hear him complain. Never once did you hear him say, "Why me?' What you heard him say was, "We're going to get to the bottom of this. We're going to get through this.'
"He passed that attitude on to his players. He was a great inspiration to them. He was loved, respected and admired by all who knew him."
Allen served as an assistant at Holy Cross from 1982-89 under Rick Carter, then Mark Duffner. He took over the head coaching duties at Boston University in 1990, guiding the Terriers to NCAA Division 1-AA playoff appearances in 1993 and '94. His 1993 BU team went 11-0 in the regular season, earning Allen NCAA Division 1-AA national Coach of the Year honors.
Allen left BU after the 1995 season to return to Holy Cross. After guiding the Crusaders to a 7-4 mark in 2000 - their most victories since 1991 - Allen was named the New England Sportswriters' Division 1-AA Coach of the Year.
In addition to Allen's health problems, the Crusaders endured tough times on the field over the last eight years. The 2000 season was the only winning campaign during Allen's tenure as head coach (1996-2003). You wouldn't know it during weekly practices or in the pregame locker room.
"Guys were enthusiastic because he was out front being enthusiastic, guys were positive because he was always positive," said HC strength and conditioning coach Jeff Oliver. "Guys never quit, because they knew he would never quit. He had plenty of opportunities in the last couple of years to quit, and he led all of his players and staff by showing us that when the chips were down for him, that he would never quit - ever.
"Just like he taught his players, no matter how bad it gets, he fought and fought and fought until the last whistle of the last game."
The Holy Cross community, of which Allen was a part for 16 years, and college sports in general lost a terrific man with his passing. That sentiment was echoed on the HC campus yesterday, and across the country.
"You're never ready for that kind of news, but you kind of knew it could go in that direction," said Duffner, now the Green Bay Packers' linebackers coach, who was last in touch with Allen about three weeks ago. "I'm sad about that, but I didn't want him to keep suffering. He's in good hands now. You have to think positive about it like he would."
Former HC wide receiver Steve Green (class of '02) said he "never met anyone as passionate about his players" as Allen. Pat Quay, captain of the 2000 squad and a native of Cincinnati like Allen, said the coach always made him feel at home in Worcester.
"He was someone you could turn to," Quay said. ""His door was always open."
And HC women's basketball coach Bill Gibbons called Allen "a first-class gentleman and role model for all student-athletes at Holy Cross."
So many were eager to share their Dan Allen stories yesterday. The stories that best told the story about the man.
Allen made football office secretary Lu Ann Hennessy leave work early (take a late lunch break) in the spring so she could see her son's baseball games.
"It was much more important to Coach A that I was sitting at my son's baseball game for the last hour of the day than sitting behind my desk, because family is No. 1," Hennessy said.
Matt Pascale, who graduated in 2001, arrived with his father for an impromptu tour of the HC campus in the summer of 1996, just weeks after Allen had been hired as head coach.
"He had unpacked boxes all over his office and he hadn't even settled in yet," said Pascale, a junior in high school at the time. "We just wanted to look around, but he immediately invited us into his office and we talked for about a half hour. That was my first impression of him.
"When I returned a year later for my official visit, he remembered everything from our first conversation. He just had a way with people. The guys who had the opportunity to play for him were blessed."
Allen invited former Holy Cross sports information director and close friend Gregg Burke to speak to the team the night before last year's season finale against Colgate. Allen addressed the team first.
"The kids were raucous, getting ready for the next day's game," Burke said. "But when Dan entered that room, every back went straight in every chair. Every player sat at attention in dead silence. The respect in that room was tangible. There was the physical presence of respect.
"It was hard to get up there and follow Dan that night, but it was easy to talk about him. There's no question he's as fine a man as I've met in college athletics."
Caring about others is what Dan Allen did best.
"I always hoped that Danny would be coaching football for a long time," said Oliver, a tremendous personal aide to Allen the last two years. ""If my son was playing football, I would want him to play for Coach Allen. I know he would be taken care of, and would learn the many great lessons of football that you can't learn any other way.
"Unfortunately, that will never happen and there will never be anyone that can give him the experience he would have had playing for Danny. He was the best."
Calling hours are from 3 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Mercadante Funeral Home, 370 Plantation St., with the funeral at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Paul's Cathedral on Chatham Street in downtown Worcester.
Dan Allen, at 48, was football coach at BU, Holy Cross
By Mark Blaudschun, Globe Staff | May 18, 2004
Dan Allen, who led Boston University's football team to an undefeated regular season in 1993 and also coached at Holy Cross for 15 years, died Sunday of complications from multiple chemical sensitivity. He was 48.
Mr. Allen, whose disease eventually forced him to coach from a wheelchair in the press box, began his career at Holy Cross in 1982 as defensive line coach. He switched to running backs coach in 1986, quarterbacks coach in 1988, and was named offensive coordinator in 1989. One year later, the Westborough resident became a head coach for the first time, at Boston University. He went 35-34 in six seasons at the BU helm. In 1993, the Terriers went 11-0 and Mr. Allen was named the NCAA Division 1-AA coach of the year. BU defeated Northern Iowa in the first round of the playoffs before losing to Idaho.
Despite the brilliant season, BU struggled to finance its Division 1-AA football program, and by the mid-1990s, Mr. Allen knew it was time to look elsewhere.
In 1996, Mr. Allen returned to Holy Cross as head coach, fulfilling a dream. BU would discontinue its football program after the 1997 season.
For Mr. Allen, it was tough work finding a winning formula at Holy Cross, which wrestled with academic and athletic issues and how much emphasis to put on football. But he made it work, or tried to make it work.
After four sub.-500 seasons, Mr. Allen led the Crusaders to a 7-4 record in 2000.
Things became even tougher two years ago, when Mr. Allen began coming down with persistent headaches. Then one of his toes went limp and there were other signs that something was wrong.
Doctors ran tests but couldn't pinpoint a problem. After more tests, the diagnosis was multiple chemical sensitivity, possibly caused by exposure to toxic chemicals.
Mr. Allen battled the illness, but there were too many obstacles. He had trouble walking.
Last fall, he told the Globe, "All I know is, I'm a competitor. If the good Lord is going to take me, I'm going down swinging."
Mr. Allen took a medical leave in the 2002 season so doctors could try to come up with answers. He came back to coach the final four games, but the signs of recovery were slim. Last season, he coached from a wheelchair, watching games from the press box. The Crusaders went 1-11 and it was clear that some changes were coming. Last November, Holy Cross relieved him of his coaching duties, making it clear that he was still employed by the college.
"He was probably the most unassuming coach I've ever known," said BU assistant athletic director Ed Carpenter yesterday. "He was very understated, but he was also very competitive.
Mr. Allen was a 1978 graduate of Hanover (Ind.) College, where he was an honorable mention All-American linebacker.
Mr. Allen leaves his wife, Laura; and children Mark, Taylor, and Danielle. Funeral arrangements are incomplete.
