Ermal Allen

Who was Ermal Allen?

Ermal Glenn Allen was an American football quarterback and assistant coach. He grew up in Tennessee and attended the University of Kentucky, where he played basketball, track, golf, and football. After four years in the U.S. Army during World War II, Allen was drafted in 1947 by the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League. He instead went to play for the Cleveland Browns of the competing All-America Football Conference, who won the league championship that year.

Allen played in Cleveland for one season, returning to the University of Kentucky in 1948 to serve as an assistant football coach under Bear Bryant. He stayed at Kentucky after Blanton Collier took over as head coach in 1954, working as the team's defensive coordinator. In 1962, Tom Landry hired him as a backfield coach on the NFL's Dallas Cowboys. He became the head of the Cowboys' research and development department in 1970 and was charged with scouting opponents. The Cowboys won Super Bowl VI in 1972. Allen remained with the team until retiring in 1983. He died of cancer in 1998 in a Dallas hospital.