George Allen

[pagouras]

Hello All

I'm new to the Warpath; it's wonderful to be here. I've been a fan of the Skins since I was a kid in the 80s, but am fascinated with a coach I never got to see lead the Skins, Hall of Famer George Allen.

For those who remember him, please feel free to post your comments, memories, etc of this Redskins legend.

[dmek25]

welcome, and god bless coach allen. there will never be another rah, rah, team first, keep it fun, and win at all cost coach like coach allen.he made the dallas rivalry, back then the skins(and us fans) hated the dreaded cowboys. from ken houston,kilmer,jurgey,l brown and the over the hill gang. football seemed like alot more fun back then. it was a very good time to be a skins fan. i still cant believe the skins lost to the dolphins in the big one.but i will always remember the nfc championship with charlie taylor burning rookie marc washington and the skins routing the cowboys 26-3

[offiss]

I liked Allen he was a nice guy, he was good defensive coach, infact some credit him with innovating the modern day defenses, as Greg Williams put it everyone is running some form of George Allens defense. But he missed the boat on personel, he traded away our future for what became known as the over the hill gang, when they didn't win it all it was all downhill, guy's to old to play and no draft picks to rebuild it was an ugly time after his first few years, all you heard constantly was that we had no draft picks for years to come. We were better than average but you alway's knew we couldn't beat the best teams out there, allthough we did compete, in the end it was the same old story we would lose. He gave it his best shot and was a heck of a likable guy, but in the end his philosophy failed.

[TrustinGibbs]

Allen was the coach of the Skin's when I first started out as a serious fan. The "Over the Hill Gang" will always hold a special place in my heart. Kilmer, Larry Brown, Talbert, Pat Fischer, Houston, Taylor, Jefferson, Smith, Bragg, "The Dancing Bear"(McDole??), Hanburger. I remember alot of names and quite a few games. One playoff game in a snow storm back at the old Vilkings stadium broke my heart at the time...now I look back on it and the way the Skin's and Kilmer fought until the bitter end quite fondly(had it not been for Gibbs and his success I might still be bitter about that though..LOL). That was George Allen's teams to me. Never the most talented but many times played harder and smarter than the opposition and found a way to be successful...just not quite successful enough.

The previous post was absolutely right. All the good Mr Allen in the short term did hurt the franchise over the long haul but he sure made it fun to be a Skin's fan for a few years. His players left their hearts and souls on the field for George Allen...in that he was much like Joe Gibbs.

"We didn't lose...we just ran out of time" was a quote from Kilmer after losing in the playoffs during their final run. If he only knew at the time how right he was in every sence. Thats the way I remember "the Over the Hill Gang" and their leader George Allen.

[Prop13]

I'm a transplanted DC native to the South part of LA. People around here--where Allen was from, I believe, think that every Redskin fan was an Allen fan, but that is not the case.

I got into football around seven years old or so--my first memories were of the Allen era. The county was pretty split back then between pro-Vietnam/anti-Vietnam and pro-Nixon/anti-Nixon (Nixon and Allen were friends by the way), but in DC, there was another split--I'd call it pro-Allen/anti-Allen, but people who were there at the time would probably remember it best as Kilmer/Jurgensen, with Kilmer people being pro-Allen.

Anyway, this is the way I remember it--don't have any statistics or surveys, etc. ...it's just the way I remember it.

My house was definitely pro-Jurgensen. I was too young at the time to know much about the fundamentals, but if Jurgensen had played more we would have won more. Yes, I know, Jurgensen was hurt a lot, and he was hurt for the Superbowl against the Dolphins, but Kilmer's performance there was in some ways indicative of the kind of player he was--he threw 4 interceptions, as I recall, and we only lost 14-7.

I believe it was Allen who was known for saying he was willing to sell his soul to win. I'd quip back that he was willing to sell everybody else's soul too. Before the Herschel Walker trade (surely one of the worst in history) Allen's Ramskins trades probably ranked pretty high. ...This is partially why (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong), we didn't have a draft pick higher than the 4th round from 1972 until 1979. Think about that.

George Allen was like a Buddy Ryan except more so. He had good qualities. He had bad ones too. People tend to remember the good ones--I remember the bad ones too. Maybe my impressions were colored by the opinions of my parents, like I said I was pretty young then and didn't know much about the fundamentals of the game. ...but that's the way I remember it.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by pagouras

Hello All

I'm new to the Warpath; it's wonderful to be here. I've been a fan of the Skins since I was a kid in the 80s, but am fascinated with a coach I never got to see lead the Skins, Hall of Famer George Allen.

For those who remember him, please feel free to post your comments, memories, etc of this Redskins legend.

Of course, I also wasn't around back then, but from what I know of him, his veterans only style could not be easily duplicated in today's game. He is in most opinions one of the greatest coaches of all time.

[backrow]

George Allen holds a spot on the Redskins Ring of Honor.

His son George, is a Senator from Virginia, and was a former Govenor.


Another Son is a GM I believe with either Da Raaadas or DaBaux, my memory fails me as I type this.


My first B&G memories pre-date the George Allen era, but I will always remember him for his preference for Billy over Sonny, and he actually helped the team by creating the QB controversy.

I always liked Sonny better.

[LBrown43]

I remember him always licking his fingers on the side lines and being one of the biggest "cheerleading" coaches in the game. On the old NFL Fils you can always hear him shouting encouragement to a player or taking him off to the side and pointing out what he did wrong. He was so well known for his "The future is now" philosophy and for trading away the future but he knw what he wanted and got a lot out of the players many felt we done in the league.
He was a great guy with a big heart and he was the first coach I remember the Skins having. I have vague recollections of my dad being excited when Lombardi joined but George is the man who led them to the first Super Bowl and will be remembered as one of the organizations bigest personalities.

[Master4Caster]

"Every time you lose, you die a little. Not all of your organs, but a portion of you; maybe just your liver." -- Coach George Allen

Was a successful coach with the Los Angeles Rams, before being hired by Edward Bennet Williams to coach the Redskins, who were devestated by the sudden death of the legendary Vince Lombardi. Lombardi coached the long suffering Skins to an 8-8 record in his only season here. (Lombardi was the second Green Bay coach to come to Washingron. Curly Lambeau was here in the 1930s/?/.)

"I gave Coach Allen an unlimited budget and he exceeded it." -- Edward Bennett Williams

Allen believed in veteran players and traded draft choices to get them, especially for players he had a relationship with, like Jack Pardee and Verlon Biggs. The results were immediate; the Redskins became periennial contenders through the '70s. The league was shocked that a group of players considered overpaid "has-beens" were so successful. Unfortunately, the highpoint of his tenure was the 1972 team that got as far as Super Bowl VII and ran into the undefeated Miami Dolphins - who remained undefeated after the game. It was the '70s, when the AFC, especially Pittsburgh, Oakland and Miami ruled. (The NFC turned the tables in the '80s). The Skins were always a playoff calibre team, but never made it all the way. (Amoung the NFC East contenders were the St. Louis Cardinals, coached by Don Coryell. The Cardinals took the division in 1974 and '75. Coryell had a promising young offensive coordinator named Joe Gibbs. For more of Gibbs' story, look here.)

The Over The Hill Gang was a made for TV movie starring Walter Brennan. The story was about a group of broken down, retired Texas Rangers who brought law and order to the West. Sportswriters applied the name to Allen's Redskins since it seemed to fit.

Sonny Jurgensen was a far more talented QB than Billy Kilmer, but he never enjoyed Allen's confidence. Kilmer had undoubted leadership ability and he and Jurgy formed a bond that lifted the whole team. Lots of QB controversies tear teams apart. But Allen banished Jurgensen, who was injured, from the field at Super Bowl VII. The slight still goes down hard for Sonny.

Allen's opinion was the opposite of Lombardi's who told some of his old Packer players that "If we had him (Jurgensen) as quarterback, we would never have lost a game."

Allen did not start the rivalry with Dallas. It existed from the beginning of the Cowboys franchise. Redskins founder and owner George Preston Marshall figured he owned the NFL franchise and loyalty of the entire South and worked against the placement of any team anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon line. (I think Peter Angelos is Marshall's love child.) That didn't go down well with eventual Cowboys owner Clint Murchison, who always pushed his team to beat Washington. In the 1960s, the passing duels between Sonny Jurgensen and Dandy Don Meredeth went a long way toward building up the rivalry. By the late '60s, the Boys reached the top echelon of the NFL and were dominating the series. George Allen can along and made the games competive again. Some of those games were real beauties and the drama was ideal for TV broadcasting. He used the Cowboys to motivate the Redskins. To win the division, you had to beat the Cowboys -- and keep pace with them. So, in a way every game was a Cowboys game.

Pro-football came of age in the 1970s when it was found to be the ideal TV sport. Rivalries played a big part of the drama. The Over The Hill Gang versus the Cowboys (Allen V. Landry) played into that.

Allen left the Redskins to return to the Rams in what he thought was a better deal. He called that a mistake. But his effect on the Redskins survived long after he left. Jack Pardee and Richie Pettibone, both Allen disciples, coached the George Allen defense into the 1990s. Then, ex-Cowboys O-coordinator Norv Turner came along and changed everything.

Damned Cowboys won again.

[Prop13]

Once again from memory, didn't Jurgensen thank Lombardi, rather than Allen, in his Hall of Fame induction speech?

[Defensewins]

I never forgave Allen for picking Billy over Sonny. After his near death car accident Kilmer played with a noticable limp and his throws quaked, no spiral. But he did win. Kind of like Brunnell now. He won ugly.
Although Kilmer was a beer bellied, slow footed ugly. At least Brunnell is a good athlete.
However Sonny by the time Allen arrived looked as pregnant as Billy. We had the fattest QB's ever; they were both great.
Sonny was one of the best QB's the NFL has ever seen, but always played on bad teams. Kind of like Archie Manning.

I miss the yellow pants uniforms. They might be ugly but they take back to when I first fell in love with the Redskins.

We had the best receivers: Charlie Taylor, Roy Jefferson and TE Jerry Smith.
Our D was loaded with characters: Pat Fisher, Richie Pettibone, Diron Talbert, Harold McKlinton.
We had great return man in Herb Molkey (sp?).

The team was a reflection of Allen and he brought winning to DC before Gibbs.

[dmek25]

our team was god awful and even though we sacrificed the future, when coach allen was here things were good. and i also love those mustard colored pants

[Longtimefan]

Interest in the Redskins as a team began to intensify when George Allen arived and brought the idea of "Winning Tradition". While the Redskins had been a winning franchise in some earlier years before the arival of Allen, the excitement began to peake with the "Future is Now" philosophy. George never met a draft choice he didn't trade, he even managed to trade DC's he didn't even have.
When Allen came and brought with him the "Ramskins" Diron Talbert, Myron Pottios, Maxie Baughn, Jack Pardee and Richie Pettibon it ushered in a new era of Redskin Football. His first trade was for Billy Kilmer, then Ron McDole and Verlon Biggs of the Bills and Jets respectively. This almost instantly made us a good defense with Biggs and McDole at the ends, Pottios, Pardee and Hanburger at the Lb's, and Diron Talbert at DT. While Allen lacked the passion for younger players, his teams were always competitive and played hard and I enjoyed having him as a coach because I had witnessed so many loosing teams and seasons before his arival. He managed to get the fans involved in a manner like not before, fan began to get excited about the team and espically taking us to our first SB appearence. Pardee and Pettibon went on to become coaches of the Redskins. For all of us fans who are old enough to remember this was an unforgetable era in Redskin history.