DEWEY ALLEN

CLASS OF 2002
 

Dewey Allen was born and raised in Ada, Oklahoma.  He attended Hayes Elementary School and Horace Mann High School where he was a two-sport letterman in tennis and basketball all four years and was twice a state tennis champion in doubles.  He was an Air Force instrument flying instructor from 1942-1946.  While in the Air Force, he met Marian Nelson and married her July 4, 1943.

He attended East Central University, lettering all four years in tennis.  He was the first ECU tennis player to win the State Collegiate singles championships and he also won the doubles championships.  After graduation, he became the ECU tennis coach in 1948-49.  He then moved to Seminole to teach and coach tennis for seventeen years.  The first high school state tennis tournament began in 1958 and from 1958 to 1966 his boys won seven state team titles and were state runner-ups six times.  He produced eleven state singles champions and ten state doubles champions.  In 1966 Dewey moved to Midwest City and started a tennis program at Midwest City High School, winning the Mid-State Conference tennis title six times.  He ran youth tennis camps every summer until retiring in 1981.

He was named the Oklahoma Coaches Association Tennis Coach of the Year in 1976 and 1979.  In 1976 he was voted Tennis Coach of the Year for District 5 by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association.  He was inducted into the East Central University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1985.  Mr. Allen passed away in 2012.