Indiana University of Pennsylvania Athletics

When Randy Allen completed his Indiana University of Pennsylvania basketball career in March. 1974, he did so as one of the most talented, respected and admired student-athlete ever to enroll at the university.

Awaiting him were honors as prestigious as earned by any Indian roundballer in history and stature as a draft choice of the NBA Phoenix Suns. No other IUP player has ever been drafted; he survived there until the Suns final roster cut.

Among Allen's postseason laurels were picks to the NAIA All-American second team (following honorable mention as a junior), the ECAC ''All-East" roster and the Associated Press AII-Pennsylvania second team. As a junior, he had been an All-American honorable mention and All-ECAC player.

The only player not from a Division 1 college or university selected to the AP first or second team. He was also named Player of the Year for NAIA District 18 and on The Pittsburgh Press All-District roster. He led the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference in scoring as IUP won the league championship.

Achieving such recognition came as a result of Allen scoring more points in a three-year career than any previous IUP player (freshmen were not eligible to play varsity ball at the time). His 1366 career points; today rank sixth for the Crimson and Gray all-time and second among players who competed three seasons.

He set team records for his 643 points (still the record) and 270 field goals in a season as he tallied as many as 40 points in a single game.

Allen was the only senior regular as IUP in 1974 advanced to the 32-team NAIA national championship tournament in Kansas City, where Coach Carl Davis' Indians became the KC crowd favorite by defeating Azusa Pacific and 28-1 Grand Canyon before being halted in the quarterfinal round by eventual champion West Georgia.
Prefacing all of the above had been Allen's graduating from Altoona High School as a UPI/United Press International All-Pennsylvania first-team player.

As expected, he was intensively recruited by some 125 college teams, but decided to accept coach Herm Sledzik's offer to come to IUP even though it did not include a full scholarship.

In 1974-75 he played basketball for Athletes in Action (a ministry of the Campus Crusade for Christ). The following year worked for the Coalition for Christian Outreach, then moved to the Los Angeles area. Where he has been a sales representative in the bottled water industry for 20 years. He is also in his 16th year as associate minister of Bethel Baptist Church in Los Angeles.

Married to Sheila since 1976, they have a daughter, Cynthia, enrolled at San Diego State University, and two sons, David and Aaron, a high school freshman and sophomore respectively.