Lamar "Buddy" Allen (November 25, 1914 – May 16, 1989) was an American

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

player and coach and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

center fielder A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball and softball fielding position between left field and right field. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the c ...

in the

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

. He served as the head football coach at Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical & Normal College (Arkansas AM&N)—now known as University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff—for four seasons, from to 1946 to 1949, compiling a record of 17–19–5. Allen played as a back for Pine Bluff Merrill High School, a segregated black school in

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

, which won national championships in 1932, his freshman year, and 1933. His accomplishments were such that even the state's white newspapers, including the ''

Arkansas Gazette The ''Arkansas Gazette'' was a newspaper in Little Rock, Arkansas, that was published from 1819 to 1991. It was known as the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi River. It was located from 1908 until its closing at the now historic Gazette ...

'' took notice. He played baseball with the

Birmingham Black Barons The Birmingham Black Barons were a Negro league baseball team that played from 1920 until 1960. They shared their home field of Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, with the white Birmingham Barons, usually drawing larger crowds and equal pres ...

in 1940.

Head coaching record

References

External links

an
Baseball-Reference Black Baseball Stats
and
Seamheads
* Buddy Allen a
Arkansas Baseball Encyclopedia
1914 births 1989 deaths American football quarterbacks Arkansas–Pine Bluff Golden Lions football coaches Arkansas–Pine Bluff Golden Lions football players Sportspeople from Pine Bluff, Arkansas African-American coaches of American football African-American players of American football Merrill High School alumni Birmingham Black Barons players Baseball players from Arkansas Baseball outfielders 20th-century African-American sportspeople {{Negro-league-baseball-outfielder-stub