Allen Takes His Energy To New Level Fight With Cancer Can’t Stop Boise State Coach’s Return
Pokey Allen answered his office phone Tuesday morning - not a secretary, the routine at so many I-A football schools. He was in the midst of a 10-hour work day.
He piped up with some one-liners at a booster luncheon on Monday.
A CBS-TV crew is following him around Boise today to film footage for an upcoming story.
Allen says he feels pretty good, good enough that he could resume his head-coaching duties at Boise State.”I’m back and I’ve got my energy,” Allen said in a feeble - for him - but convincing tone.
One would be foolish to doubt him.
Cancer has pushed him to the brink of death so many times, his close friends no longer bother keeping an accurate count. It sidelined him from coaching BSU’s first 10 games this season before he returned last week.
And, in an ending heretofore reserved for sappy Hollywood screenplays, BSU pulled out a 33-32 win over New Mexico State last Saturday with a touchdown in the final seconds. It was set up when Allen called for a reverse on a kickoff return. As BSU was about to score, Allen was warning players on the sideline not to go bonkers celebrating to avoid getting a penalty.
“Shoot, if New Mexico State can lose a game with 43 seconds to go, we could have still lost it with 13 seconds left,” reasoned Allen, well-versed in the preciousness of time.
In Boise newspapers, they’re writing about Allen’s aura, his magic touch. It’s a fairly even debate: Did Allen win one for the Broncos or did the Broncos win one for Allen?
“It’s been insane,” said Allen, admitting that the hectic pace and travel to New Mexico left him slightly drained as the rejuvenated Broncos prepare to entertain Idaho on Saturday at Bronco Stadium. “Everyone’s super-excited. We’re rolling. We’re 2-9 and it’s like we’re going to the Super Bowl.”
One thing kept him from returning sooner, Allen said. “I wanted to come back as soon as possible, eight weeks ago, 10 weeks ago, two weeks ago, but every time I got close some other bumps would come up.”
Bumps, loosely translated, were recurrences of cancer. Allen has endured about every conventional and unconventional treatment available - from radiation and chemotherapy to swallowing human urine crystals and self-injected shots into his groin.
And he’s still here.
He’s back on the job, he admits, partly because he fretted that BSU might fire interim coach Tom Mason and his staff. He’s back because it is, after all, HIS job. One obscure factor is that Allen had coached at Division II and I-AA and had been a I-A assistant, but the cancer had prevented him from being the head coach of a I-A program. He corrected that last week.
“I don’t know what other people are saying, but it looked like they needed some help,” Allen said. “He (Mason) is a guy I love working with. Hey, once the season’s over they can do anything. They could have cut everybody loose.”
Allen recalls the worst times as feeling rotten from treatments, living in Vancouver, B.C., and having to listen to BSU games on the radio.
“Listening,” he says quietly, “and not being able to coach.”
He’s not coaching a whole bunch now. He’ll help formulate the game plan, offer a suggestion here and there to his assistants and try to pump up the players.
He plans on being an active recruiter after Saturday’s season-ending game. He hopes to begin working out next week. He has some cancer in his lungs, but a tumor in his chest is shrinking.
“In some ways, this is as good as I’ve felt,” said Allen, who led BSU to the I-AA title game two years ago. “Once the season’s over, I’ll worry about the cancer coming back in a real bad form, but as long as it doesn’t get crazy, I’ll be ready to go.”
Really, there’s no choice but to believe him. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo
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