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Allen inducted into NMU Hall of Fame

Iron Mountain's Richard Allen is shown in a screenshot taken from a video of his induction speech to the Northern Michigan University Sports Hall of Fame. (Screenshot via Northern Michigan University)

Richard Allen is finally on the Wall at Northern Michigan University’s Superior Dome.

The Superior Dome Wall contains plaques belonging to members of the NMU Sports Hall of Fame. Allen, a retired Iron Mountain Public Schools administrator and coach, joined that esteemed group Friday with his induction.

“Given all the people that have plaques on the wall and the company that I’ve joined, what a privilege to be counted among them and an honor to be in their company,” said Allen, who was unable to attend the ceremony but accepted the award via video. “There are a lot of achievements here. I am grateful for the opportunity.”

Allen, a Blacksburg, Va., native who graduated from Clawson (Mich.) High School, was one of the few back then who traveled from Lower Michigan to attend school in Marquette.

“We could probably all sit at a cafeteria table,” Allen said of the downstate contingent.

In the 1950s, Michigan’s peninsulas didn’t have the Mackinac Bridge. Allen’s instructions were to drive 500 miles north, get on a ferry and then drive another 200 miles.

“Where am I going?” Allen said. “It was quite a journey to come to Marquette in the 50s with a ferry, no expressway. Lord help you if you got caught in deer season at the ferry. You were going to wait four or five hours to get on. That was a given.”

But Allen got a glimpse of Lake Superior when he reached Negaunee and a tour of the NMU campus hooked him.

“I will definitely be back in the fall,” Allen told the school host.

Allen said NMU in 1956 was “kind of like a big high school.” School enrollment exploded after initiating “right to try.”

“That meant you could come with any sort of a GPA but if you didn’t try you also had the right to leave,” Allen said. “That gave a lot of students the opportunity to get a college education that ordinarily would not have because of GPA regulations. That was a real boon for Northern.”

Allen was the starting running back on the 1956 NMU football squad that finished the season undefeated. Two years later, he was named a Little (now NCAA Div. II) All-American after leading the Wildcats in rushing with 386 yards and scoring with 36 points.

Allen was also a four-year letter winner for the NMU track and field team.

After three years teaching at Davison, Allen moved to Iron Mountain in 1963. He taught speech and English along with coaching football and track.

He influenced the likes of IMHS graduate Steve Mariucci, a former NMU football star who coached two NFL teams. Mariucci said Allen was a teacher, coach, coach, counselor, administrator, mentor and friend.

“Coach Allen was all of these to me over the years,” Mariucci said in a letter of support for Allen’s NMU induction. “To say he had a positive impact on many others as well as myself is an understatement.”

Allen later became assistant principal and superintendent of Iron Mountain Public Schools.

“He is a community role model,” said banquet emcee Rick Popp, an Iron Mountain graduate and 2017 NMU Sports Hall of Fame inductee.

NMU’s 1997-98 women’s basketball team was also honored during the induction ceremony Friday in the Great Lakes Room of the Don H. Bottum University Center.

The 1997-98 Wildcats finished the season with a 27-3 overall record and advanced to the NCAA Division II semifinals. They also won the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament.

Gladstone’s Ginger (Weber) Moore, a former Iron Mountain girls basketball coach, and Janell (Schupp) Lord, a former Mountaineers star, played for the 1997-98 NMU team. Former Iron Mountain boys basketball coach Gordy LeDuc was an assistant.

“While we all have different backgrounds, interests and achievements, one thing for sure, we all loved Northern and are grateful for the opportunity to have graduated from here,” Allen said in front of the Superior Dome Hall of Fame Wall.

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