2019 CCAA Hall of Fame Inductee: Phil Allen
The Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA)
is proud to induct 10 new members into its Hall of Fame.
The 2019 CCAA Hall of Fame Banquet will be hosted by the
Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) on June 11 in Calgary.
Phil Allen, who had a remarkable 28-year coaching career in the ACAC, will be inducted into the CCAA Hall of Fame in the Coach Category. He will be inducted posthumously.
Allen coached Men’s Basketball at SAIT, Grant MacEwan College (now MacEwan University) and Lakeland College, taking all three teams to CCAA National Championships at least once. He holds the ACAC record for all-time wins by a head coach.
Allen joined the SAIT Trojans in 1978-79 and began an odyssey of success unequaled in the history of the ACAC. In 15 years behind the bench at SAIT from 1978 to 1996, Allen’s teams won nine ACAC Championship titles, including an unprecedented seven in a row from 1980-86.
The Trojans were crowned National Champions in 1982 and again in 1986, a team that went a perfect 34-0. Allen’s teams compiled a regular season winning percentage of .801 while producing nine CCAA All-Canadians and 30 ACAC All-Stars.
“At SAIT, we pride ourselves on being one of the most successful athletics programs not only in Alberta, but across Canada as well,” says Wade Kolmel, Trojans Athletics and Recreation Director. “Phil Allen played a massive role in that by making SAIT’s basketball program a powerhouse in the 80s and 90s.”
Allen was also the Athletic Director at SAIT from 1986-96. He was a driving force behind the formation of the Trojan Athletic Foundation and remains one of the Foundation’s founding members. He also initiated the SAIT Holiday Classic Men’s Basketball Tournament, which still takes place each December.
At SAIT, Allen hosted the 1989 CCAA Men’s Soccer National Championship and the 1994 CCAA Women’s Volleyball National Championship.
In 1996-97, Allen served as CCAA Men’s Basketball Convenor as well as the ACAC’s representative to the CCAA. He then served on the CCAA Executive as VP Marketing from 1998-2001.
Prior to his coaching days, Allen played basketball himself at Grant MacEwan and Red Deer College in the ACAC. In fact, he met his wife Denise on the basketball court at MacEwan in 1973.
“We were both playing on the ACAC inaugural basketball team of MacEwan and the school photographer was coming to take team photos in the gym,” said Denise, Phil’s widow. “The photographer was late, so for fun we had a game: guys against girls – we were married two years later.”
The Allen’s had two sons, and both would eventually play basketball in the CCAA themselves: Cory at NAIT and Joel at Dawson College, Concordia University of Edmonton and Lakeland College.
Coach Allen was inducted into the ACAC Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.
Denise believes coaching in the ACAC and CCAA gave Allen a platform for his coaching and mentorship that he exemplified in.
“He loved the game and loved taking players that other coaches would sometimes pass over in the CCAA and bring the absolute best out in them,” she said. “Although if he was here, he would say that the players taught him so much more.”
