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Carl Allen, who built Sabine’s boys basketball program into one of the state’s true powerhouses and tirelessly promoted the program throughout his career, died on Sunday.
Allen was 70. His funeral is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. today at First Baptist Church in Bloomburg.
Sabine won back-to-back state titles under Allen in 1980 and 1981, defeating Bartlett 69-68 for the championship in 1980 and routing Shallowater in the 1981 state title game (62-43) to complete a 34-0 season.
He was 714-189 in his career, which included five seasons at Waskom and 27 years at Sabine, but former Sabine girls coach and current Sabine High School principal Eddie Shawn said Allen’s legacy involves much more than simply being a coach.
“He put Sabine on the map,” Shawn said. “He was a great promoter for the basketball program in the community, to the media. ...to anyone who would listen. One thing I remember that always makes me smile is when basketball season was about to start his kids would take schedules and run around the community, to the local stores, to the four-way stop. Anyone around was going to get a schedule so they would know the season was about to start.”
Allen led Sabine to 12 district championships, 14 total playoff berths and four state tournaments during his career. His teams won 69 straight district games and put together a 54-game winning streak overall.
Bo Barrow, who played for Allen from 1979-82, followed Allen as head coach at Sabine and went 145-115 from 1993-2005. He said the pressure of following a legend into the coaching ranks was made easier because of his relationship with Allen.
“Being able to play under him prepared me for what I needed to do at Sabine,” Barrow said. “I just tried to carry on a lot of the things he instilled in us as players. I looked up to coach Allen, and I wanted to do the best in his eyes. I wanted to carry on what he started here. He sent numerous kids on to colleges or universities on scholarships, but he always stressed that education was the number one thing.”
Shawn coached the girls program at Sabine for several seasons, including coaching Allen’s daughter.
“He was very influential to me,” Shawn said. “He was a very strong supporter of the girls program. Just like any other coach, if you see something that works, you try to learn from it. I spent many hours visiting with him in his office or with him in my office, just talking basketball. I have nothing but good memories of coach Allen. He was a great coach and a great friend, and I’m going to miss him.”
Several nephews will serve as pallbearers at Allen’s funeral today. Honorary pallbearers will be deacons from his home church and former players from his state championship and state playoff teams.
