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By Jon Paul Hoornstra
Contributing Sports Writer
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Bob Allen's career as a basketball player was not his most prolific professional endeavor — but it was his most famous.
Allen, who died on Dec. 9, was inducted into the Marshall University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003. Following his standout college career, the 6-foot-9 center was selected in the sixth round of the 1968 NBA Draft by the San Francisco Warriors, ahead of future Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Rick Adelman.
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Allen's pro career consisted of 27 games with the 1968-69 Warriors, a team still six years away from its first championship since relocating from Philadelphia.
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According to his obituary in the Times Herald of Port Huron, Michigan, Allen spent his post-playing years in Huntington, West Virginia, and Russell, Kentucky, and retired from the Ashland Oil Treasury Department.
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But Allen's contributions on the court left an impression in West Virginia, where he was quite literally a big man on campus for four years.
Recruited out of Port Huron, Michigan, by coach Ellis Johnson, Allen became one of the most dependable rebounders the Marshall men's basketball program has ever seen. He averaged 11.2 boards per game over his career with the Thundering Herd, which still ranks fourth in school history.
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As a junior, Allen pulled down 13.8 rebounds per game while helping the Thundering Herd reach the NIT semifinals, earning second-team All–Mid-American Conference honors along the way. He followed that with an even better senior season, averaging 14.2 rebounds, leading the MAC in the category again, and guiding Marshall back to the NIT.
That consistency caught the attention of the NBA, albeit briefly. Allen's time with the Warriors overlapped with that of future Hall of Fame center Nate Thurmond, All-Stars Jeff Mullins and Rudy LaRusso, and point guard Al Attles — who would coach the Warriors to the NBA championship in 1975.
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According to the Times Herald, Allen is survived by his wife Dawn; son Robert “Rob” J. Allen II; daughter Julie (Mitch) Poole; and four grandchildren.
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