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49er Has New Meaning for Allen

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Heard a new Gene Murphy rumor today. This one has him going to Cal State Long Beach.

To play quarterback for George Allen.

Allen’s still working on getting Murphy an extra year of eligibility, but that shouldn’t be a problem. Allen has friends at the University of North Dakota.

Besides, it doesn’t look as though Billy Kilmer and Roman Gabriel are going to make it past the dean of admissions.

What a match: George Allen and Long Beach. The old man and the sea. A 71-year-old guy in short pants trying to relate to a bunch of 18-year-old freshmen. And how will Allen address his players? Kids? Grand kids? Great -grand kids?

Allen likes seasoned players, the kind who don’t make mistakes because they know better, but at Long Beach, his most savvy players will have 22 years of earth experience. That’s a 49-year differential between senior and coach, which gives new meaning to the term Long Beach State 49er.

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Allen comes to his new assignment hailed as Captain Rebuild, the man who turned around the Rams and the Washington Redskins in the 1960s and ‘70s, which no doubt heightened his appeal with the Long Beach administration.

With the 49ers, the future hasn’t been now for a good decade.

But things are done differently here and Allen has no draft choices to trade. In the NFL, Allen burned draft choices like kindling, swapping slews of them for such craggy veterans as Diron Talbert, Myron Pottios and Richie Petitbon. Once, Allen got so carried away, he traded a draft choice he didn’t have, which caused all sorts of trouble.

And about that “unlimited budget” Allen was said to have exceeded while coaching the Redskins? At Long Beach, the resources will be resolutely finite. Three years ago, the 49er football program nearly went bankrupt before a community drive raised $315,000, which paid for 11 victories and 24 defeats during the next three seasons.

But Long Beach, buried as it is under the shadow of USC and UCLA and even Cal State Fullerton, was starved for attention. For a while, Allen will give the 49ers that. The day he was hired, the story was front-page news across the nation, which the school should appreciate while it lasts.

The long-term ramifications are more interesting. Think George Allen and the word association never stops.

Defense. The cornerstone of all Allen teams. His Rams had the Fearsome Foursome. His Redskins lost the lowest-scoring Super Bowl ever played, 14-7, to Miami in 1973.

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His 49ers are coming off a season in which they lost games by scores of 52-0 (Fresno State), 63-10 (Hawaii) and 52-10 (Oregon). Maxie Baughan, where are you?

Ice cream. Allen once called it his favorite food because you don’t have to chew it, thus allowing you more time to concentrate on football.

The 49ers have a new flavor for him: Rocky road.

Paper cups . Strewn across the Rams’ practice field during the summer of ‘78, they helped get Allen fired two exhibition games into his second incarnation in Los Angeles. A clean team is a mean team, Allen believes, but Allen became so obsessed about the Rams’ sloppiness during water breaks, owner Carroll Rosenbloom figured his team might be better off with a coach with different priorities.

In 1990, the 49ers will learn to pick up their trash, but they’d be better served if they also learned to pick up the blitz.

Hail to the Redskins . In Allen’s world, loopy cheers, battle cries and team fight songs work. At the end of the news conference that announced his hiring at Long Beach, Allen thrust his fist in the air and led the room in a rousing chorus of “Hip! Hip! Hooray!”

When it comes to stoking the emotional fires in his troops, Allen is shameless. The man will try anything. Future 49er pep talks, in a nutshell: Men, the Fresno State game is the biggest game of your lives. If you lose, you will have no reason to go on living. Substitute with Cal State Fullerton, San Jose State, Utah State, Nevada Las Vegas and Pacific when appropriate.

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Richard Nixon . Is it any coincidence that Nixon and Allen reigned in Washington at the same time? Allen had no Watergate but at various times during his NFL coaching career, he was accused of spying on opponents’ practices, lying to management, breaking NFL rules and general chicanery.

If you squint a little, you’ll even notice a physical resemblance.

Red ink. Allen usually has to splash through it when he decides to leave for less controversial pastures. Look at the National Fitness Foundation, which occupied Allen’s time before this new hobby. Because financial reports haven’t been filed on time, the foundation may lose its tax-exempt status.

“That’s news to me,” Allen says.

Cal State Long Beach, we hope you’re ready. You wanted George Allen and now you’ve got him.

If the future isn’t now, you can be guaranteed that it will never be the same.

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