By Harry Minium
Former Old Dominion basketball coach Sonny Allen was again denied admission in early December to the hall that honors Virginia's greatest players and coaches and sports administrators and journalists.
He's been rejected before by the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, but never has there been so much support for the man who integrated basketball in Virginia and built the foundation for ODU's Division I success.
While I like and respect the good people in the hall, this was a chance to right a glaring omission that is decades old. They failed to do so and that's terribly disappointing.
Sonny came to Old Dominion College, as ODU was then known in 1965, and transformed the University's basketball program and indeed all of college basketball.
The Sonny Allen fast break became the model for the go-go college basketball offenses in later years. Indiana's Bobby Knight used it. So did Loyola Marymount's Paul Westhead and LSU's Dale Brown.
Even his numbering system, 1 for a point guard, 2 for a shooting guard, etc., remains a fixture of the game.
He took ODU from the Mason-Dixon League, composed of schools that are now largely Division III institutions, to a Division II national championship in 1975, and he recruited the players who formed the foundation for ODU's successful debut in Division I two years later.
His greatest accomplishment, however, was integrating Virginia college basketball. No other coach at a predominantly white school had shown the guts to recruit black players.
Sonny recruited two – Buttons Speakes and Bob Pritchett – and both endured segregated restaurants and hotels and sometimes hostile, race baiting crowds.
Sonny made it clear that he passionately believed in equal rights. When on road trips, and the team stopped at a restaurant that denied service to African Americans, Sonny would order everyone back on the bus until they found one in which Speakes and Pritchett could eat with their teammates.
After leading ODU to a national title, and recruiting players such as Wilson Washington, Jeff Fuhrmann and Joey Caruthers who became the heart of ODU's first Division I team, Sonny moved on to SMU and later Nevada to coach.
That first Division I team finished 22-4 and upset Virginia, Mississippi State and Georgetown in 1976-77 under legendary ODU head coach Paul Webb.
Sonny's basketball resume is sparkling – he was 613-383 in more than four decades of coaching. But his efforts toward social justice made this a no brainer.
I learned last year that Sonny had not been nominated for the hall of fame in years. When I passed that on to athletic director Dr. Wood Selig, he agreed it was time for ODU to give his candidacy a push.
I made calls and asked people to endorse him and no one turned me down.
His candidacy had the support of Gov. Ralph Northam, ODU President John R. Broderick, former NFL great Bruce Smith, Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander, former ODU women's basketball star Nancy Lieberman, former men's All-American Dave Twardzik and Naismith Hall of Fame basketball coaches Larry Brown, George Raveling, Dale Brown and Westhead.
Dozens of former players, from SMU and Nevada to ODU, also wrote or called to endorse him. So did ODU basketball coach Jeff Jones and Bryant Stith, the ODU assistant who is also in the hall of fame.
Sonny Allen "was the premier fast break coach in the country. His teams were running before anyone knew how to run," wrote Larry Brown, the former Kansas and long-time NBA coach who played for the Virginia Squires at the same time Allen coached at ODU.
"But not only did they run, they won."
Sonny isn't the only Allen who has been overlooked. When I heard that no one has ever nominated Allen Iverson, I nominated him a few months ago.
Iverson was a controversial player who did things his way and got into some difficult legal trouble while at Bethel High School and later while with the Philadelphia 76ers. But he was the NBA MVP in 2001 and an 11-time NBA All-Star.
I think his resume overcomes the blemishes in his personal life. Even if the hall of fame disagrees, this is an issue that deserves to be debated and not ignored.
I called Will Driscoll, the hall's executive director, to ask him about Sonny Allen, and to his credit, he answered every question forthrightly.
Sonny Allen hasn't been on the ballot in a long time, he said, and that hurt him this time around.
"Sonny's candidacy is very strong. He had strong support in that room and got a lot of votes," he said. "He made it to the final ballot."
But he added that the hall had a strong set of candidates and that Sonny was one of the last left out.
In past years, hall officials said Sonny didn't deserve admission because he was only in Virginia 10 years. That's ludicrous, of course, because some in the hall of fame were in Virginia fewer years and accomplished less.
Again, to his credit, Driscoll said so during the hall of fame deliberations, reminding voters that Marianne Stanley, the Hall of Fame former ODU women's basketball coach, was in Virginia just a decade.
Driscoll said all of the letters of support will remain in Sonny's file. "He had been off the radar a while and this reinvigorated his case," he said.
"He will be a strong candidate next year. The public backing he has makes him a very strong candidate."
When I told Sonny he hadn't made it, he was very disappointed, as you might imagine. So was Selig.
By and large, the list of eight people who made the cut this year were worthy.
It was good to see WAVY-TV sports director Bruce Rader, who has been a sportscaster in Hampton Roads for more than four decades, finally make the hall of fame. Bruce has not only been a friend to ODU, he's also my good friend.
But there are two missing names.
The hall of fame committee needs to make a New Year's resolution to embrace two guys named Allen.
Especially Sonny. He is in failing health. He not only deserves to be inducted, but to be there when it happens.
Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu
Minium: My New Year’s Resolution for Virginia Sports Hall of Fame? Induct Sonny Allen
