Everyone could use a do-over at some point.
Most of us could recall a time when a rewind button would come in handy, whether to pick mild over spicy, or come up with a wittier comeback in conversation, or take more care in placing the car keys in an obvious spot in the house.
Such moments are stocked in my memory like a Costco warehouse, and one was plucked from the shelf when the Star-Advertiser’s Stephen Tsai reported the recent passing of University of Hawaii football great Gary Allen at age 63.
The 2009 UH football season, my second covering the beat for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin (back in the days of two daily newspapers), included a trip to Las Vegas for the Warriors’ matchup with UNLV. The run-up to the game, of course, served as a reunion for Hawaii fans and alums and Dave Reardon, our esteemed and well-connected columnist and my travel partner that week, convinced me to accompany him downtown for a gathering of friends.
Amid the music and mingling in a hotel lounge area, Dave directed my attention toward the gentleman at his side and said, “I want you to meet Gary Allen.”
Hold on. Gary Allen? THE Gary Allen?
My innate social ineptitude hit overdrive as we shook hands and with my mind now a shaken etch-a-sketch I mustered a smile and a stammering, “Um, hi. Nice to meet you.”
He was, of course, cordial and soon conversing with folks with the ability to string together complete sentences at will.
Which brings us to that wished-for re-do.
Given another opportunity, how would I make up for flubbing a meeting with a player who, although listed (perhaps generously) at 5-feet-10 and 175 pounds, bore larger-than-life stature for fans of Hawaii football in the late ’70’s and early ’80s?
Allen’s 3,451 rushing yards remains the highest career total in program history more than four decades after the final carry of his senior year in 1981. An injury sidelined him for the finale of UH’s landmark 9-2 season — a 33-10 win over South Carolina — so a 162-yard performance in UH’s 59-6 rout of Colorado State stands as Allen’s last on-field appearance in Aloha Stadium.
“Once he got past the line of scrimmage, he was gone,” Colorado State interim coach Chester Caddas told the Honolulu Advertiser’s Ferd Borsch after Allen torched the Rams, with the bulk of his total coming on an 84-yard touchdown run.
“We’ve (got) nobody in our secondary, and probably on our track team for that matter, who could catch him.”
Allen also finished his career with 895 receiving yards and held UH’s record for all-purpose yards until triple-threat Chad Owens passed him in 2004 with his combination of receiving and punt and kickoff returns.
But statistics do little to convey Allen’s ability to captivate.
While he routinely thrilled the 40,000-plus in attendance in Halawa, there were Saturday nights when many of us envisioned Allen’s exploits through the radio descriptions of Jim Leahey and Rick Blangiardi, read the recaps in the morning Advertiser, then had those runs — his shoulder pads flapping beneath the shreds of a tear-away jersey — illustrated in highlights on the “Dick Tomey Show” on Sunday afternoons.
With Allen headlining the offense, ’Bows put together an 11-game winning streak over the final four games of the 1980 season and a 7-0 start in 1981 to draw the program’s first national ranking and first appearance on regional television, albeit a loss to Jim McMahon-led BYU.
Allen’s career remains inextricably tied to a period of growth in the program’s history, including UH’s entry into the Western Athletic Conference, contributing to his enduring place in Hawaii football lore.
So given another chance, how to sum up that influence in the span of a hand shake? What could be said to verbalize the impact he left on those who watched him, including a kid who first learned his name by poring through the game programs?
Maybe a simple, “Thank you,” would have been enough.
