Glenn Melvin Allen

Who is Glenn Melvin Allen?

Glenn Melvin Allen, born 29 March 1976, is a South African underwater rugby champion. He began his underwater rugby career in 1993 after winning several informal tournaments most notably at the Margaret Maytom aquatic centre in Virginia, Durban. He eventually retired from the sport in 1997 having won three South African UWR titles and became the face of UWR in South Africa.

His participation in UWR began with the more traditional field rugby, where in 1989 he starred as the Northlands Boys High School right wing. Throughout his high school field rugby career Allen showed a lot of promise but failed to fully reach his potential in the more traditional version of the game. It was in his final year in High School that Allen began entering informally arranged UWR tournaments.

At the time UWR was seen as a borderline sport with no organising bodies and no formal sports affiliations, the tournaments Allen began competing in were arranged informally between UWR enthusiasts and typically involved meeting at the Virginia UWR club headquarters the "Virginia Grill and Tavern" a local eatery.

Throughout the summer of 1993 Allen began to make a name for himself in UWR circles as a genuine talent albeit with discipline problems. While Allen was building his formidable reputation, the sport of UWR was starting to develop along more traditional lines. Formal tournaments were arranged and the UWRSSA was formed, the UWRSSA began to formalise regional tournaments and in 1994 started the South African UWR national championships, this provided the platform for UWR legends such as Glenn "Poodle" Allen, Claudio "Luciano" Beltramini, Grant "Monkey" Oliver, Craig "Bushman" Davidson and Darren "Smoothie" Morgan. [Davidson left the sport of UWR in 1996 to pursue field rugby and went on to play for the Natal Sharks and Springboks].