George Allen Campaigning for New U.S. Fitness Center

George Allen, who has given up locker room peptalks for speeches in corporate boardrooms, is facing his toughest challenge.

Allen, former coach of NFL Washington Redskins and Los Angeles Rams, has changed his focus since becoming Chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. He is now devoting his time to making American children more physically fit.

As chairman of the council, Allen was in New York last week to honor Nancy Reagan at a banquet where she received the 1985 National Physical Fitness Honor Award.

Allen is also drumming up support for a U.S. Fitness Academy, a national training center for physical fitness instructors, trainers and others involved with athletics.

“This is bigger than beating the Dallas Cowboys,” says Allen of the plans for the construction of the academy.

The projected cost of the campus, which would be located on 175 acres near the Pacific Ocean in Aliso Viejo, Calif., is between $40 million and $50 million. The center will provide classrooms, dining facilities, exercise and weight rooms, a gymnasium and dormitories.

“When I became chairman of the President’s council, I said I wanted to do something significant. I didn’t want this to be an honorary title,” said Allen.

The fund-raising for the academy is being conducted by the National Fitness Foundation, a non-profit group which Allen helped found three years ago.

“The President’s Council is a government agency. The academy will be built entirely from the private sector. I hate red tape,” he said.