Coach William “Pop” Allen was a longtime coach and administrator best known for serving as the Jackson Public Schools Athletic Director. Coach Allen was born in New Site who lettered in football, basketball, baseball, and track at Copiah-Lincoln Junior College from 1941-42 and 1946-47. He was named as the school’s Most Outstanding Athlete in 1947. He lettered in football and basketball at Delta State and quarterbacked the football team to a mark of 7-1-1 in 1948. Pop worked as a coach or administrator in the Jackson Public School system from 1949 to 1986. He served as a teacher and coach at Central High from 1949 to 1961 and as a counselor at Enochs Junior High from 1961 to 1967. Coach Allen was voted Jackson’s Most Outstanding Coach and Athletic Director since 1949. He was named Mississippi’s and MAC’s Athletic Director of the Year in 1973 and 1974. He organized the Capital Bowl football event in Jackson in 1971 and organized girls’ sports programs in JPS in 1973 and 1974. He received special sportsmanship awards in 1973 and 1974. Pop supervised the construction of the all-weather track around Hughes Field which enabled the facility to become a longtime host for metro, regional, and state track & field events. He was a longtime public address announcer at the state high school basketball tournament at the Mississippi Coliseum. He was inducted in the Delta State Sports Hall of Fame in 1975 and posthumously into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1994. Coach Allen
passed away on April 10, 1991.