retired prior to the 1968 season. Early coaching career Following his CFL playing career, Allen became an assistant coach in 1968 at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., Canada. Five years later, he was named co-coach of the team along with Bob DeJulius. After nine years at Simon Fraser, Allen returned to the U.S. in 1977 as the defensive coordinator at Montana under head coach Gene Carlson, followed by other assistant coaching positions with Eastern Washington and California. In 1983, Allen signed on as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Express of the USFL, a newly formed professional league which played its games in the spring during the NFL offseason. Two years later, he moved to Portland, Oregon as defensive coordinator for the Portland Breakers. Portland State Following the collapse of the USFL, Allen became the head coach of the Portland State Vikings in 1986. Allen coached the Vikings to their first playoff appearances, including back-to-back trips to the Division II finals in 1987 and 1988, though the team lost both games. He was named coach of the year in the Western Football Conference five times. The Vikings had a 63–26–2 record while Allen coached the team. Allen was as much noted for his personality as his coaching. He took part in a humorous series of television commercials to sell tickets for Portland State games, with stunts such as dancing the Hokey Pokey, betting a month's salary on attendance at the game, allowing fans to vote on whether to pick heads or tails at the coin toss, and most famously, a series of commercials in which Allen promised to have a meteor, an elephant, or himself (shot out of a cannon) land in the backyard of anyone not buying Portland State season tickets. Boise State In 1992, Allen's Division II Vikings visited Bronco Stadium in Boise in late October and soundly defeated the I-AA Broncos After Boise State lost their next three games to close out the season, head coach Skip Hall promptly resigned, and Allen and his entire coaching staff were hired away from Portland State. In his second year at Boise State in 1994, BSU began the season unranked. Allen led the Broncos to a regular season and a Big Sky championship, the first since 1980, and a #3 ranking at the end of the regular season. As conference champions, the Broncos were included in the and