ALLEN, Marcus LeMarr

(b. 26 March 1960 in San Diego, California), Heisman Trophy winner (1981) and professional football player.

Allen was one of six children born to Harold "Red" Allen, a construction worker, and Gwen Allen, a vocational nurse. The Allen home provided him with ample opportunity to participate in sports, music, and church-related activities. Allen recalled, "Sports were always a big thing to us." In his grade-school years, he emulated the play of stars from all sports in backyard events. Allen attended elementary and junior-high schools in San Diego and in 1975 he entered Lincoln High School. In his sophomore year Allen played on Lincoln's football team, the Hornets, as a free safety, and during his junior year he continued in the safety position and served as a backup quarterback and wingback on offense. During his senior year he played quarterback on offense and free safety on defense. On offense he scored more than 500 points, a county record, and led the Hornets to a state championship win. Allen was selected to the Parade All-America, Scholastic Coach All-America, and National High School Coaches Squad All-America teams. The San Diego Tribune named him the schoolboy athlete of the year.

Allen entered the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles in 1978 and played football with the Trojans, coached by John Robinson. His first year of play as a tailback was unremarkable. During his sophomore year he moved to the fullback position, and as a junior he played tailback again. Between his junior and senior seasons, Allen worked on his skills and perfected what would become his trademark—the cutback, a move that allowed him to cut across to the open field and quickly explode downfield.

At the beginning of his senior year at USC, Allen set an ambitious goal to rush for 2,000 yards. He began his senior season by rushing for 210 yards and scoring four touch-downs against Tennessee. One game later, the top-ranked Trojans took on the second-ranked Oklahoma Sooners and defeated them by a score of 28–24. Allen rushed for more than 200 yards against a superb Sooners defensive line. Later, the Sooners coach Barry Switzer, who was one of the few coaches to recruit Allen out of high school, commented, "He's got my vote for the Heisman." Allen made his 2,000-yard rushing goal in a game played against the Washington Huskies and finished the season against the arch-rival University of California, Los Angeles, by rushing for 213 yards, bringing his total regular season rushing yards to 2,342. At the time, this achievement was an all-time season record. In the Heisman Trophy balloting, Allen won the award over Herschel Walker of Georgia. Allen received numerous other honors, including college player-of-the-year awards from the Walter Camp Foundation, the Maxwell Club, and Football News.

In 1982, after graduating from USC, Allen was chosen tenth in the National Football League (NFL) draft, the first-round pick of the Los Angles Raiders. Allen was excited to play for the Raiders, a team he had admired when he was growing up, but he was somewhat anxious, because the team had a winning tradition and expected him to make an immediate contribution. When Allen arrived at training camp, he found the competition for the running-back position keen as he competed against the veterans Mark van Eeghen and Greg Pruitt. Winning this competition, and with Gregg Pruitt as one of his NFL mentors, Allen experienced immediate success with the Raiders. In his first season (1982–1983), which was cut short by a strike, he rushed for 697 yards and eleven touchdowns in nine games, and led the league in scoring with 84 points. He was named as the NFL's rookie of the year, was picked to be on several All-Pro teams, and was invited to play in the Pro Bowl. His second season (1983–1984) brought everything a professional football player could want. The Raiders finished with a 12–4 record of wins and losses and entered the Super Bowl to play the Washington Redskins. During the contest Allen carried the ball twenty times and ran for 191 yards, including two touchdowns that led the Raiders to a 38–9 victory. Allen's efforts earned him the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for Super Bowl XVIII.

While Allen's on-field performance was exceptional, it did not seem to impress Raiders owner Al Davis. Allen observed after the 1984–1985 season, in which he rushed for 1,168 yards, that he felt a "growing uneasy relationship with Al Davis." The source of Davis's antagonism remained somewhat of a mystery to Allen, even when the coaching staff told him that Davis thought he was a selfish player. Davis's assessment was hard for Allen to understand because he had excelled on the field. Allen seriously considered the owner's characterization and examined his play, but could not find merit in his charge.

Despite Davis's lukewarm reaction to Allen, the owner did renew his contract in the offseason prior to the start of the 1985–1986 season. Allen demonstrated to Davis that he made the right decision when Allen rushed for over 1,759 yards––a career high and league rushing record. Those rushing yards combined with Allen's 555 receiving yards for the year brought his total combined yardage of the season to 2,314––an NFL single season record. Allen's outstanding performance led to his third Pro Bowl appearance. The Raiders entered the playoffs with a 12–4 record but were defeated by the New England Patriots. In the game, the team failed to mix its offensive passing game with Allen's explosive offensive ground attack. After the game, Al Davis announced, "We're never again going to be so dependent on one guy. This team has become too one-dimensional."

Allen believed Davis's comments were directed at him but was stunned to hear these discouraging words in light of one of his most successful seasons. During the 1986–1987 season the relationship between Allen and Davis degenerated further. Allen fumbled in a regular season game against the Philadelphia Eagles and the Eagles capitalized on Allen's error and scored a game-winning touchdown over the Raiders. After the game, Davis told Allen that he should have been traded. Some sports analysts saw this game as pivotal, because the Raiders lost their next three regular-season games which took them out of the playoff contention. From 1987 until 1992, his last season with the Raiders, Allen was hampered by injuries and frustrated by reduced playing time. In the 1989–1990 and 1991–1992 seasons Allen played in only eight games each season. His best season during those six years came in 1988 when he amassed 831 rushing yards, and his worst season came in 1991 when he accumulated a total of only 287 rushing yards. In 1993 Allen was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs. His personal life also changed on 26 June 1993, when he married Kathryn Eickstaedt. The couple did not have any children.

Allen arrived in Kansas City the same year Joe Montana joined the Chiefs. At the end of Allen's first season he led the team in rushing, scored twelve touchdowns, and was selected by his teammates as the Chiefs' MVP. Pro Football Weekly named him the NFL's comeback player of the year, and he traveled to the Pro Bowl once again after a six-year absence. In 1997 Allen retired from the game, and became a color commentator for CBS Sports. As a Kansas City Chief he had scored more rushing touchdowns than any other back in the history of the franchise. He left the NFL as the first player in its history to lead two teams in rushing touchdowns.

Allen was the first college player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a single season. As a professional he played in 222 games, scored 123 touchdowns, and caught 587 passes—the most of any NFL running back at the time of his retirement. In 2000 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Nonetheless, Allen's professional career will be remembered for his rocky relationship with Davis, even though Allen brought the Raiders and Davis a Super Bowl victory in 1984.

The Autobiography of Marcus Allen (1997), with Carlton Stowers, details Allen's life. Information on Allen's career as a Kansas City Chief is in Mark Stallard, AFL to Arrowhead: Four Decades of Chiefs History and Trivia (1999). Allen's career accomplishments are highlighted in "Marcus Allen Retires from NFL," Jet (27 Apr. 1998).

Jon E. Taylor