By Harry Minium
When former Old Dominion University basketball coach Sonny Allen died five months ago, the family planned to gather in Norfolk this weekend for a celebration of his life.
Sonny didn't want a funeral, he told his son, Billy Allen. He didn't want people sitting around crying or being sad.
Instead, the family decided to gather, tell funny stories and share treasured memories of Sonny. It would truly be a celebration of a life well lived.
The 50 or so family members wanted to celebrate at ODU, a place their father loved. And it would have coincided with ODU's games this Friday and Saturday night with Marshall, Sonny's alma mater.
Alas, as we all know, much has changed since September. The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened, and the celebration of life has been postponed indefinitely.
But that won't stop eight Allen family members, led by his daughter, Jackie Eldrenkamp, who are coming to ODU this weekend to pay homage to their dad, grandfather and great grandfather at the place where he coached and won a national title.
They will be in Chartway Arena, guest of Athletic Director Camden Wood Selig, for both games Friday and Saturday.
Because of the pandemic, there won't be any big gathering, nor any presentations on the court. Attendance is limited to 250 spectators who will be social distancing. There will be video tributes to Sonny and the family will be recognized.
Any further celebration will have to wait until next year.
But Jackie said they wanted to come anyway, not just to watch the Monarchs play, but also to say thank you.
Prodded by ODU alumnus and retired media executive Dick Fraim, the school quietly began raising money months ago for a men's basketball scholarship that will be named in Sonny's honor.
Even with the economy slumping from the pandemic, the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation has raised more than $146,000 and is approaching its goal of $150,000.
"We are so touched by what ODU is doing to honor our Dad," Eldrenkamp said.
Fraim texted Jay Haeseker of the ODAF on Sept. 11, the day of Sonny's death, volunteering to help lead a scholarship effort. Haeseker passed that text to Selig, who quickly gave his approval.
Selig grew up in Larchmont, minutes from the old ODU Fieldhouse, where Sonny's Monarchs often ran opponents into the court with their fast-break offense. He and Billy Allen were high school basketball teammates.
He often ate dinner with the Allens and came to know Sonny "as a father who genuinely cared about all of his children and their friends.
"He welcomed all the neighborhood kids into his home, his practices and around the program and made an indelible mark among so many of us.
"He was just such a good man."
Haeseker, assistant athletic director for athletic development for ODAF, was charged with leading the effort.
Fraim kicked it off with a founding donation. Former ODU assistant coach Ed Hall and former ODU All-American Dave Twardzik also made sizeable donations, and the effort was off and running.
Fraim was the radio voice for ODU basketball during Sonny Allen's glory days. He would go on to a career as a TV and radio executive, running TV stations in California and Nevada.
Now retired, Fraim splits time between Norfolk, San Diego and Las Vegas, but remembers his time with Sonny Allen as some of the best days of his life.
"He was the most optimistic guy I ever met," Fraim said. "He always believed that we were better than we were, and we just kept on getting better and winning.
"He was so much fun to be around."
Sonny Allen had a difficult childhood
Sonny was raised in Moundsville, West Virginia under trying circumstances. His Mom brought up five children by herself after her husband abandoned the family when Sonny was just three.
Sonny was hurt and later angry that his father left, but most of all, his dad's departure instilled in him an intense desire to succeed.
He was a high school basketball star who wasn't quite good enough to earn a scholarship offer from nearby Marshall University. So, he got a job at the local steel mill where he worked for a year and socked away his paychecks. He lived at home and helped his mom financially and played pick-up basketball wherever he could.
After a year of forging steel, he enrolled at Marshall, where he walked-on to the basketball team and quickly earned a scholarship. He roomed with future NBA star Hal Greer, an African American who would have a great influence on Sonny's life.
After graduation, Sonny coached the Marshall freshman team for five seasons.
Sonny interviewed and was offered the ODU job in 1965, but he had one stipulation: he wanted the freedom to recruit Black players. Allen despised the racism so prevalent at the time, and rooming with Greer reinforced his determination to recruit African Americans when he became a head coach.
If athletic director Bud Metheny said no, then Sonny was headed back to Huntington, West Virginia.
Metheny said yes and the decision changed the course of the institution's athletic program.
ODU then had what today would be considered a good but not great Division III program. It played in an aging gym on campus and drew crowds of hundreds, not thousands.
Within six seasons, Sonny had the Monarchs in the Division II national championship game. They lost in 1971 to Evansville on the Aces' home floor, but four years later, returned to Evansville and won a national title.
Over those 10 seasons, Sonny literally changed the game of college basketball and transformed ODU athletics.
First, he integrated college basketball in Virginia, recruiting the first two Black players – Buttons Speakes and Bob Pritchett – to an all-white school in the Commonwealth. It was not a popular move in Virginia, the state that closed its schools in 1958 rather than integrate, and Speakes and Pritchett often faced racism on the road.
However, by the end of that first year, other Virginia schools began recruiting African Americans.
He brought a fast-break offense to ODU that many would emulate, one that former Indiana coach Bobby Knight called revolutionary. He also introduced a numbered system still used by nearly every basketball team in the world today – the point guard is your No. 1 player, wing guard, No. 2., etc.
Sonny's fast break quickly caught fire. In his third season, 1967-68, ODU finished 19-7 and averaged 98.5 points per game. The Monarchs claimed a 152-110 victory over Richmond Professional Institute, now known as VCU. Even in 1968, the rivalry between the two schools was heated.
It was the most points ever scored by ODU and Pritchett scored a school-record 67 points against RPI in his final home game.
A year later, the Monarchs were 21-10 and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time.
By then, most games were being played at the 3,100-seat Norfolk Arena or Wilson and Lake Taylor high schools, where the Monarchs would often draw packed houses. The schedule got more competitive, as ODU played at Division I schools Georgia, Navy, VMI and William and Mary in 1968-69, losing only to the Bulldogs.
By 1970-71, in his sixth season, the Monarchs were playing, and often selling out, the new 4,800-seat ODU Fieldhouse.
"That was such an exciting season, it was such a wonderful experience," Fraim said. "The fans really responded to Sonny and the fast break.
"It seemed like everyone wanted to be part of the program. It was a wonderful time."
The Monarchs won four NCAA tournament games that season, including a 102-97 triumph over Norfolk State at the Fieldhouse, and advanced to the Division II national championship game, where they fell to Evansville on the Purple Aces' home court, 97-82.
In the coming years, Virginia Tech, Indiana, Xavier and Cal-Berkley all played ODU at Scope, where the Monarchs often faced Norfolk State in front of sellout crowds of more than 10,000.
In his tenth season, Sonny took ODU back to Evansville, where the Monarchs defeated the University of New Orleans, 76-74, for the 1975 Division II national title. His 10 teams had won 181 games and averaged more than 87 points per game.
"I can't think of anyone anywhere who took a program farther than Sonny Allen took ODU in his ten seasons," Twardzik said.
Season-tickets were booming and ODU was a year away from moving up to Division I when Sonny departed for SMU, where his success continued.
ODU's first Division I team, coached by Paul Webb, would have a magnificent first season in 1977-78. The Monarchs won 22 games in a row at one point, finished 25-4 and upset Georgetown, Virginia and Mississippi State.
Ronnie Valentine, the freshman from Norfolk recruited by Webb, was an instant star.
But the foundation of the team, including Wilson Washington, Jeff Fuhrmann and Joey Caruthers, as well as a rabid fan base, had been left in place by Sonny.
Recruiting an All-American
Allen's up-tempo offense helped him recruit players who otherwise might have been out of reach for ODU, including Dick St. Clair, Harry Lozon, Joel Copeland and Oliver Purnell, the point guard on the 1975 championship team who would later go on to be a successful head coach.
But he got his most significant recruit on a cold spring evening in Pennsylvania Dutch country in 1968.
Twardzik was an outstanding point guard who was judged to be a little too short and a little too skinny by most college scouts. He played on a state championship team his senior year and got letters of congratulation, but no offers, from college coaches.
He was playing in a spring all-star game in Lancaster, Pa., not far from his home in Middletown, that Sonny attended while on the search for overlooked talent. Sonny found the guy he was looking for in Twardzik. He tracked down Twardzik's coach and they chased him down in the parking lot, where Dave was about to get into his dad's car to head home.
"My first reaction when my coach introduced him to me was, 'I just want to get home' ," Twardzik said.
Being a polite guy, he stopped to listen and then was quickly intrigued.
"I had never heard of Old Dominion," Twardzik said. "But then he tells me about the school, that it was located just 20 minutes from Virginia Beach. My family had never been on a vacation. That sounded good.
"He talked to me about where he wanted to take the program, about his style of play, his numbered system and his fast break. He told me the point guard has the ball in his hands 90 percent of the time in his system. That sounded even better."
Sonny asked Twardzik to fly to Norfolk on a recruiting visit and he quickly agreed.
"I'd never flown before," Twardzik said. More importantly, he had no other scholarship offers.
"I had no earthly idea where I was going to school," Twardzik said. So, he quickly signed with ODU.
Freshmen weren't allowed to play at the time but Twardzik was an instant star as a sophomore, averaging 17.5 points and 9.8 assists per game. He was fortunate in a sense in that St. Clair was injured, forcing him to start as a sophomore.
He led ODU to the championship game of the Division II tournament as a junior and would score 1,660 points and dish off 880 assists. He was a first-team Division II All-American as a senior, the first in ODU's history.
He is eighth in career scoring and second in assists even though he had one less season than most ODU players.
Twardzik would go on to a pro career with the Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Association and with the Portland Trail Blazers, where he was part of an NBA championship team.
Twardzik has since worked in the NBA in half a dozen organizations and is an assistant to the general manager for the San Antonio Spurs, in addition to being the color commentator for ODU basketball.
"I hate to think about where I would be without Sonny Allen's influence in my life," Twardzik said. "Almost everything I have, I have because of Sonny. I got a college education, a chance to play collegiate sports and met my wife at Old Dominion.
"And then I got to continue my career. None of that would have been possible without Sonny Allen."
Billy Allen said that his dad said the same thing about Twardzik.
"He said without Dave, he doesn't know how successful he would have been," Billy Allen said. "Dave was the guy who made their offense go.
"He told us the story of how he recruited Dave so many times. Hundreds of times. But I never got tired of hearing it."
Billy Allen "just broke down."
Billy Allen said when he got a call from Selig to tell him that ODU was raising money for a scholarship in his dad's name "I just broke down."
It was not long after his father died and the news was great tonic for sisters Jackie Eldrenkamp, Kelly Marcantel and Jennifer Allen, as well as step siblings Jimmy Warner and Tedi Holdmann.
"I can't begin to tell you how much this means to my family," Billy Allen said. "For Wood to be so behind this, for Dave Twardzik and Dick Fraim to be working so hard, it's really something my dad would have appreciated so much."
Sonny's wife, Donna, and Billy have made generous contributions to the effort.
Dick Fraim said that they were determined not to go to traditional athletic donors, so as not to poach money that might go to other programs.
For the most part, they didn't. They raised the money from 44 people, largely former players and others who were associated with Allen, including former team doctor Joel Mason.
George Raveling, the former head coach of Southern Cal and Iowa and Washington State, and a close friend of Sonny's, was among those who donated.
Haeseker is a young guy and read a book on the history of ODU basketball before beginning the effort. "I had a lot to learn," he said.
"I think the biggest takeaway I've had has been the connection Sonny Allen had with his former players, the lasting impact he had on these guys.
"In the decade he was here, it's amazing the number of lives he touched. The coolest thing is how much effort Dave has put into this."
Twardzik wrote letters to Allen's former players and has worked the phones.
Jackie Eldrenkamp has visited ODU twice in the last two years with family members. She will be joined on this trip by her daughter, Stephanie, and grandsons Nick and Jordan and daughter Mimi and her husband Tony and their boys Parker and Ian.
They are bringing a small blanket that has Big Blue bouncing a ball, with number "75," and says "ODU NCAA Div II Champs." No one in the family remembers who made it, but they know Sonny took it with him from Norfolk to SMU 46 years ago.
The family plans to wave the blanket when Sonny's name is mentioned Friday and Saturday.
She says the family will celebrate their father's birthday on March 8 at their home in Lexington, N.C.
And hopefully, she said, a celebration of Sonny's life will occur next year at Chartway Arena.
"We'd like to do that at Old Dominion," she said. "We're so appreciative that everyone there is still caring for Dad.
"We're so thankful to our ODU family."
Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu
Minium: Sonny Allen's Family Members Coming to ODU This Weekend to say "Thank you"
