18 Facts About Pokey Allen

Pokey Allen played college football for the Utah Utes before going on to play professionally for the BC Lions and the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League in the 1960s.

Pokey Allen led Portland State to consecutive appearances in the Division II championship game in 1987 and 1988 and guided Boise State to the Division I-AA title game in 1994.

In 1994, Pokey Allen was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of muscle cancer.

Pokey Allen continued coaching until shortly before his death in 1996.

Pokey Allen accepted a scholarship to play college football at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City under head coach Ray Nagel.

Pokey Allen played three seasons of professional football in the Canadian Football League with the BC Lions and Edmonton Eskimos, primarily as a defensive back.

In 1967, Pokey Allen moved to the Eskimos, where he played only two games.

In 1983, Pokey Allen signed on as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Express of the USFL, a newly formed professional league which played its games in the spring during the NFL offseason.

Pokey Allen coached the Vikings to their first playoff appearances, including back-to-back trips to the Division II finals in 1987 and 1988, though the team lost both games.

Pokey Allen was named coach of the year in the Western Football Conference five times.

Pokey Allen was as much noted for his personality as his coaching.

Pokey Allen 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 land in the backyard of anyone not buying Portland State season tickets.

Pokey Allen maintained his reputation for publicity stunts at Boise State.

The stadium was sold out, BSU won and Pokey Allen kept his promise.

Bothered by shoulder pain for about a month, Pokey Allen had outpatient surgery in Boise for a biopsy three days prior to the 1994 championship game, and was diagnosed two days after the game with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of muscle cancer.

Pokey Allen returned to coach the Broncos in 1995 while going through treatment, and the cancer was declared in remission in December 1995, but the doctors warned of likely recurrence.

Pokey Allen returned for the final two games of the season, against New Mexico State and Idaho.

Pokey Allen was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.