PLEASANT GROVE — Imagine you were a talented athlete whose glory days were long since spent, a distant memory before the Vietnam War. Imagine one day, almost as if in a time machine, you were swept back in time and honored as the best college kickoff return man in America.
That is exactly what happened to Paul Allen, age 75, this past week in Omaha, Nebraska. Folks there flew Paul and his wife from Pleasant Grove, Utah, for several days of festivities and celebration. His part was a retro-remembrance of his skill and acumen in the early 1960s. He joined four Heisman Trophy winners present at the banquet. The keynote speaker was Ohio State legend Archie Griffin.
Allen, who lives near the Purple Turtle fast food stop in Pleasant Grove, was minding his own business one day when someone knocked on his door. He was told he was designated to be the Distinguished 2014 Legacy Award Winner for the “The Jet” Award.
The messenger told him he would be flown to a banquet in Omaha that would crown Kansas State’s Tyler Lockett as winner of the Johnny “The Jet” Rodgers Award as the best return specialist in the country for 2014. The banquet was last Thursday in Omaha.
“It was a great honor,” said Allen. “They flew me and my wife Judy to Omaha for a few days. I was able to have a daughter and my grandson Jaxson there, and it meant a great deal to me.”
The Jet Award is only four years old and was established by a foundation to honor the country’s best college and high school special teams players. The panel decided to reach back and honor past NCAA kickoff and punt return stars and began with 1959. “They got to 1961, saw my record, and called BYU to find me. They had a few Paul Allens in their alumni records but nobody knew where to find me until Brett Pyne (BYU sports information) tracked me down and knocked on my door.
“Yes, I was very surprised.”
Allen said the folks in Omaha use the event to raise money for local Nebraska high school students to attend two-year trade schools. “They want to reach back and honor some of those in the past who were never recognized or honored at the time.”
Back in the day, Allen ran 100 yards in 9.8. “I can barely walk these days," he joked when asked his dash time today, "but I’ve been blessed to never have had a major health problem.”
Once upon a time, Allen was a high school All-American and a coveted in-state recruit. At BYU in the fall of 1961, he returned kickoffs better than anybody in America. In fact nobody’s broken his NCAA record, a mark that still stands after 54 years.
Allen played on the same Cougar team that featured All-American Eldon Fortie, whose jersey has been retired for decades.
Allen was a three-time all-state football star at Pleasant Grove High and was elected student body president his senior year. In 1957, he scored 13 of the 19 Viking touchdowns and finished his high school career with 45 touchdowns. It earned him high school All-America honors by Scholastic Magazine.
Allen became the object of an intense recruiting battle between Utah and BYU. Utah coach Ray Nagel hired Pleasant Grove’s football coach Ned Alger as part of a move to get Allen in a Ute uniform, according to newspaper accounts at the time.
Allen decided to attend BYU and play for Hal Mitchell where he joined three other athletes from the Viking program, Hal Lewis and Wayne and Gene Ash. In Allen’s first freshman game, he carried the ball 18 times for 106 yards in 1958.
His senior year, Allen ripped off three kickoff returns for touchdowns. They included a 92-yarder against North Texas, a 95-yard run against Utah State and an 88-yard kick return against Colorado State. In the Utah game, he had a 70-yard reception playing as a wingback.
The late Salt Lake Tribune columnist and sports editor Jack Schroeder penned the following description: “Allen is a solidly constructed 185-pounder with wings on his feet. He is not a fancy dan with a lot of hip motion but has the facility of simply running past the opposition.”
After a Saturday game Nov. 12, 1961, in Provo, Daily Herald sports editor Ray Schwartz wrote on Sunday, “Paul Allen, the galloping wild horse from Pleasant Grove, scored three touchdowns and turned in another sterling defensive performance” in a win over Colorado State.
The next day, Daily Universe sports editor Alfe Pratt’s game story included the following graph after declaring Allen had paced the Cougars to the win in the final home game of his career: “By paced we mean the same way Man ‘O War used to pace other thoroughbred race horses.”
Allen is not the only BYU player to hold a record nationally.
Golden Richards set a record for highest average gain per return in a game at 43.8 yards on Sept. 16, 1971, against Texas, and it remains the NCAA mark today.
Vai Sikahema’s 153 punts returned in a career remains the all-time NCAA record, set in the early 1980s.
Allen’s 40.1 kick-off return average for the 1961 season remains the highest average gained per return in the NCAA Division I record book.
That it still stands half a century later is something to celebrate.
Dick Harmon, Deseret News sports columnist, can be found on Twitter as Harmonwrites and can be contacted at dharmon@desnews.com.