Event Date: September 28th, 1984
Event Description: Allen Steps Down
Source: United Press International
George Allen, a veteran coach who took teams to championship games in the both the National Football League and the two-year-old United States Football League, retired Thursday as coach of the Arizona football club.
Allen, who will remain with the USFL club as part owner and chairman of the board, was succeeded in the head coaching post by Paul Lanham, Arizona's offensive coordinator for the past season.
Dr. Ted Diethrich, minority owner of the Outlaws, said he and Allen had discussed Allen's future several times in recent months and that he had asked Allen to remain as coach for one more year.
However, Allen said there were other things he wanted to do, including his work as chairman of the President's Council on Fitness and Sports.
Allen said he would “miss not being on the sidelines” but said he will “be here every day trying to help this team be successful.”
“There are areas within the franchise that are more critical at this point than what is happening on the field and I am anxious to lend my expertise in these matters," Allen said.
Allen won a reputation in the NFL as a coach who traded most of his draft choices for older, established players. In the NFL he had a career mark of 116-47-5, a .706 winning percentage. In the NFL, Allen was with the Los Angeles Rams from 1966-70 and the Redskins from 1971-77.
Allen joined the USFL in its initial season in 1983, coaching the Chicago Blitz, then owned by Dietrich, a Phoenix heart surgeon. After the 1983 season, Dietrich sold the Blitz and purchased the Wranglers with the two franchises then swapping some of its players. Allen also made the move to Phoenix from Chicago.
Allen said he had thought about retiring since the end of the season, but said he made the final decision Wednesday night when he informed Dietrich at a dinner meeting.
"I was very saddened last night because it was kind of an end to an era,” Dietrich said, adding he left the meal in tears.
Allen entered the pro ranks in 1957 as an assistant with the Rams and then spent eight years as an assistant with George Halas with the Chicago Bears.
Lanham, 53, coached under Allen at Washington before joining him again at Chicago in 1983. Lanham initially did not make the move to Phoenix with Allen but was hired early in the 1984 season as special teams coach before being elevated to assistant head coach and offensive coordinator. "This has been a dream of mine for quite some time,” Lanham said about his first head coaching job.
“George Allen is the toughest act to follow in football, but I'm excited about the challenges ahead,” he said.
Lanham's first job in the pros was with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1972, a year before he joined Allen at Washington. Previously, Lanham had been a college assistant at Delaware, Colorado State and Arkansas.
Dietrich said he had not formally signed Lanham to a contract, saying the details had not yet been worked out.
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