BOISE, Idaho — Presented by COMMERCIAL TIRE.
THIS DAY IN SPORTS...September 9, 1995:
Boise State coach Pokey Allen makes good on his vow to return to the Broncos in time for the season opener at Utah State. Allen had been away from the team for six months while battling a rare form of cancer that would eventually take his life a little over one year later. Boise State won the opener 38-14 over the Aggies and new head coach John L. Smith, fresh off his six-year stint at Idaho. The Broncos started fast, with quarterback Tony Hilde hitting Ryan Ikebe for a 77-yard touchdown and Andre Horace returning a kickoff 94 yards for a TD.
But it was a tumultuous time for the Broncos. Allen had led Boise State to a berth in the 1994 Division I-AA national championship game the previous December, but four days after the game he called a press conference to announce he had been diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma. He had to leave the team early in spring football to deal with treatment. Pokey went from St, Luke’s to St. Al’s to the Hutchinson Center in Seattle as he battled the disease. At one point around Independence Day, doctors called Allen’s condition “critical.”
Allen made it back during fall camp in August, though, and the win at Utah State was emotional and eminently satisfying. But the program was a ship without a rudder while he was gone, and there were some off-field problems that hung over the Broncos’ heads. Allen admitted in his book “Pokey: The Good Fight” that he had some misgivings about the team’s focus, and he didn’t have the energy to fix them. Boise State went on to rout Sam Houston State in its home opener, also by a 38-14 score, but the Broncos’ lack of cohesiveness was exposed in a 54-28 loss at Montana, triggering a three-game losing streak.
Boise State would right the ship and finish 7-4 in 1995, but it missed the Division I-AA Playoffs. Then came the 1996 season, the Broncos’ first in Division I-A. Allen seemed to be improving early in the year. He visited the Miami Dolphins training camp and the Big West meetings in July and was set to kick off the new era. But the cancer suddenly returned just before fall camp, and Pokey had to take another leave of absence as he sought alternative cancer treatment in Vancouver, BC.
The Broncos struggled in his absence. With Allen’s outlook grim in November, and Boise State saddled with a school-record eight-game losing streak, doctors told him he might as well go coach. Pokey made an unforgettable return to the team for a game at New Mexico State in November, 1996, and the Broncos rallied in the final minute to win 33-32. All he had wanted to do was be a Division I-A football coach. Allen passed away on December 30, 1996.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
