Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1996
- Class:
- 1959
A three-year starter for Coach Jule Rivlin in the late 1950s, William Russell "Sonny" Allen played for some of the highest-scoring teams in all of college basketball and developed a love of the fast-paced style that he would put to use in his 40 years as a coach. As a teammate of future Marshall Hall of Famers like Leo Byrd, Jack Freeman, Hal Greer, John Milhoan Cebe Price and Paul Underwood, Allen helped Marshall on the way to scoring 88.1 points per game in the 1957-58 season, making the Thundering Herd the highest scoring team in the nation. Rivlin, who had been Cam Henderson’s first All-American at Marshall and the centerpiece of Henderson’s “quick break” attack, recognized Allen’s potential as a coach and made the Moundsville, W.Va., native his assistant, a position in which Allen continued after Ellis Johnson became the Herd’s head coach in 1963.
Allen left Marshall to become the head coach at Old Dominion University in 1965 and there won 181 games over the next decade, including the 1975 NCAA Division II National Championship, for which he was honored as the division’s National Coach of the Year. Allen would go on to coach at SMU -- where he won Southwest Conference Coach of the Year honors -- and Nevada, leading the Wolf Pack to two NCAA Tournament appearances. He also coached for the Las Vegas Silverstreaks of the World Basketball League and then spent three seasons as head coach of the Sacramento Monarchs of the WNBA. By the time he retired, Allen had coached in at least parts of six decades and nearly 1000 games. Allen also is in the Old Dominion, Hampton Roads and Nevada sports halls of fame; he was inducted into the Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996.
