(OUR PAPERBACK COPY HAS THE SAME COVER AS STOCK PHOTO SHOW...)
OUR PAPERBACK COPY HAS THE SAME COVER AS STOCK PHOTO SHOWN. SOME MINOR DISCOLORATION, SCUFFING AND EDGE WEAR ON COVERS AND STAPLED SPINE CREASE. ALL PAGES INTACT, AND NO MARKING OR WRITING FOUND WITHIN BOOK.
https://www.amazon.com/Improve-Your-Basketball-Forrest-Allen/dp/B001BJC2FU?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B001BJC2FU
https://www.amazon.com/Coach-Allens-Sports-Stories-Youth/dp/B00CCMKF4A?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00CCMKF4A
Forrest Clare Allen was born on November 18, 1885 in Jamesport, Missouri, United States. He was the fourth of the six sons of William T. Allen, a salesman, and Alexine Perry. When Forrest Allen was two years old, the family moved to Independence, Missouri, United States. Throughout their school years, the Allen boys played football, basketball, and baseball.
Allen enrolled in Kansas University in Lawrence in 1904, partly because one of his brothers played football, baseball, and basketball there. At Kansas, which Allen attended for two years, he played football and basketball. During his college days, Allen also umpired baseball games, calling the strikes, balls, and outs in a deep voice. The sobriquet "Foghorn" became "Fog, " and finally "Phog. "
In 1909 Allen enrolled in the Kansas City School of Osteopathy, believing that study there would aid him in coaching and treating athletic injuries. He received his Doctor of Osteopathy degree in 1912.
In 1902 Allen played for the Modern Woodmen of America basketball squad in Kansas City. In 1903 he played basketball for the Kansas City Athletic Club. The Allen brothers' basketball team, organized in 1904, lost only one game in four seasons and easily defeated teams from the universities of Missouri and Kansas. While playing for the Kansas City Athletic Club, Allen met James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, who had been employed by the University of Kansas since 1898 as the chapel director, athletic director, physical education chairman, and basketball coach.
He coached basketball at Baker University in nearby Baldwin, Kansas, in 1907 and 1908. In 1908 and 1909, Allen coached basketball, part time, at the University of Kansas, winning the Missouri Valley championship both years. In addition, he took a position coaching basketball at Haskell Indian School in Lawrence in 1909.
Between 1912 and 1919, Allen coached all sports and served as athletic director at Central Missouri State Teachers College, Warrensburg, Missouri. He compiled an 84-31 basketball win-loss record there.
In 1919 the University of Kansas invited him to be director of athletics, in which role he served until 1937, and freshman basketball coach. He assumed the duties of head basketball coach in 1920, a year in which he also served as football coach. He was often accused of emphasizing basketball at the expense of other sports at Kansas. Yet Allen was a major force behind obtaining a 38, 000-seat football stadium for the university.
In 1923 Allen inaugurated the Kansas Relays, an annual track and field carnival that became one of the nation's premier collegiate meets.
From 1924 to 1946, in addition to his other duties, Allen served as head of the physical education department. Allen also joined with other American college coaches on issues affecting the game of basketball. When the Joint Basketball Rules Committee arbitrarily drafted rules in 1927 that would have virtually eliminated the dribble, Allen called a meeting of college basketball coaches to oppose, successfully, a rule they feared would kill the game. Allen was one of the founders of this National Association of Basketball Coaches of the United States, serving as president for its first two years, 1928 and 1929; he chaired the association's research committee for eight years. Allen also was vice-president and a member of the National Collegiate Basketball Rules Committee, as well as chairman of its research committee for thirteen years. Starting in the late 1920's, he campaigned vigorously to include basketball in the Olympic Games, which occurred for the first time in 1936 in Berlin. Allen helped establish the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournament beginning in 1939.
With the editorial assistance of his wife Elizabeth, Allen wrote three books: My Basketball Bible (1924), Better Basketball (1936), and Coach "Phog" Allen's Sport Stories for You and Youth (1947).
He was a popular speaker throughout Kansas. His caustic comments and feuds with sports personalities and the AAU made lively news items. The feud between Allen and the AAU dated back to the time when Allen wanted to have basketball played in the 1932 Olympic Games. The AAU refused in 1932, but then relented and allowed basketball to be played in the 1936 Olympics. Allen was chosen to coach the first team, but resigned in disgust over AAU policies. He called the AAU "a clique of a few eastern toadying, self-sophisticated, hypocritical, sanctimonious athletic politicians who activate themselves on their own ego. "
After 1956, Allen practiced osteopathy in Lawrence, Kansas. Through the years, professional athletes such as baseball players Johnny Mize, Ted Williams, and Mickey Mantle consulted Dr. Allen regarding their injuries. He once said he "won more games on the treating table than I ever won on the athletic field. "
Allen, called the "Father of Basketball Coaching" by James Naismith, died in Lawrence.
Allen was instrumental in establishment of the National Association of Basketball Coaches of the United States, of which he was president, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournament. His basketball coaching record was impressive. When he retired at Kansas in 1956, his teams had won 590 and lost 219 games in thirtynine seasons. As of 1991, he was still ranked fourth in total victories among the NCAA Division I coaches, with 746 victories. His Kansas teams won or shared twenty-four conference championships; they won the 1923 national title and the 1952 NCAA championship. After the NCAA win, seven members of the Kansas team combined with the American Athletic Union (AAU) champions, the Peoria Caterpillars, to represent the United States in the Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland, where they defeated the Soviet Union in the finals. Allen was honored many times, including being named Coach of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. In 1955 the University of Kansas named its newly constructed, 17, 000-seat fieldhouse (then the second largest in the United States) after him.
(OUR PAPERBACK COPY HAS THE SAME COVER AS STOCK PHOTO SHOW...)
Allen was truly a successful coach. He wanted his players to believe that they were better for having played basketball. Oklahoma State coach Hank Iba called Allen a fierce competitor, whose ball teams "really went after you. "
Quotes from others about the person
"Allen taught me it took three basic things to be a successful basketball coach discipline, sound fundamentals and teamwork. " - Adolph Rupp
Allen married Elizabeth "Bessie" Milton, a graduate of the State Teachers College, Warrensburg, Missouri, in June 1908. They had six children. Two sons, Milton and Robert, became basketball All-Americans at Kansas University under their father's coaching.
