Sport(s) Football 1996–2003 Holy Cross (MA) Education Hanover College 1974–1977 Hanover Name Dan Allen Positions Linebacker | 1978 Dayton (assistant) Role American football player Awards Eddie Robinson Award 1990–1995 Boston University Died May 16, 2004 | |
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1982–1989 Holy Cross (MA) (assistant) | ||
Daniel L. "Dan" Allen (December 7, 1955 – May 16, 2004) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Boston University from 1990 to 1995 and at the College of the Holy Cross from 1996 to 2003. Allen began his coaching career at the University of Dayton as a graduate assistant, where he earned a master's degree in 1979. He then served as an assistant coach at Holy Cross from 1982 to 1989 before moving on to his first head coaching job at Boston University. After a six-year stint for the Terriers, Allen finished his coaching career back at Holy Cross, where he led the Crusaders for eight seasons before being fired following a 1–11 campaign.
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Boston University's 1993 Cinderella season
Allen's most successful season as a coach came in 1993 with Boston University. Between 1990 and 1992, the Terriers football team had combined to win 12 total games against 21 losses. Heading into the 1993 season they had been picked to finish near the bottom of the Yankee Conference standings. What happened instead turned out to be one of the single biggest turnarounds in NCAA Division I-AA football history.
The Terriers began their season with a 45–0 win over Maine; this sparked the momentum that would carry through the rest of the regular season as Boston finished with an unblemished 11–0 record (8–0 Yankee). It is the school's only undefeated season and it had set a new high mark for wins as well. The Terriers earned their first Division I-AA playoffs berth in many years. In the first round game, the Terriers defeated the Kurt Warner-led Northern Iowa Panthers, 27–21, in double overtime. The season would end one week later in the quarterfinals against Idaho when they lost 21–14. Both the 1993 Boston team and Allen himself garnered national recognition, awards and accolades for their Cinderella season.
In 1994, the Terriers once again performed well and finished with a 9–3 record, making the 1993 and 1994 seasons' combined overall record 21–4, which is the best two-year span in Boston University history.
Family and death
Allen was married to his wife, Laura, and the couple had three children together: Mark, Taylor and Danielle. He died on May 16, 2004 at his home in Westboro, Massachusetts after succumbing to complications of ALS.
The poignant story surrounding the legal battle pertaining to Coach Allen's untimely death from ALS, the early onset of which was attributed by a panel of experts in occupational medicine and neurotoxicology to his exposure to neurotoxicants used in the process of refinishing a gym floor at Holy Cross, is discussed in detail in chapter 15 of the book "Poisoned: How a Crime-Busting Prosecutor Turned His Medical Mystery into a Crusade for Environmental Victims".
Coaching tree
Assistants under Dan Allen who became NCAA or NFL head coaches: