Larry Allen, a Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive lineman with extensive Bay Area ties from Sonoma State to the 49ers to the East Bay, passed away Sunday. He was 52.
Allen died suddenly while on a family vacation in Mexico, as announced Monday by the Dallas Cowboys, for whom he excelled as a guard from 1994-2005.
Upon graduating from Vintage High in Napa, Allen played Butte Junior College and Sonoma State before the Cowboys selected him in the second round of the 1994 draft. He made the Pro Bowl 11 times, was named to the AP All-Pro first team six times and played out his NFL career with the 49ers from 2006-07.
“My goal was simple, to earn a seven-word letter called ‘respect,’” Allen said in his 2013 enshrinement speech at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. “The respect of my teammates, opponents, and the NFL. Today, my mission is complete. I also played hard, whistle to whistle, to make my opponents submit. And today, I’m submitting to you. I just can’t wait to see my buddies.”
He was a longtime East Bay resident. He owned a home in the Blackhawk region of Danville with his wife, Janelle, as they raised their daughters Jayla and Loriana and son, Larry III, the latter of whom played football at De La Salle High-Concord and Harvard.
“Larry, known for his great athleticism and incredible strength, was one of the most respected, accomplished offensive linemen to ever play in the NFL,” the Cowboys said in a statement. “His versatility and dependability were also signature parts of his career. Through that, he continued to serve as inspiration for many other players, defining what it meant to be a great teammate, competitor and winner. He was deeply loved and cared for by his wife, Janelle — whom he referred to as his heart and soul — his daughters Jayla and Loriana and son, Larry III.”
Born in Los Angeles, Allen grew up in Compton and didn’t start playing football until his junior year at Centennial High.
Allen (6-foot-3, 325 pounds) became a near-perennial Pro Bowl pick by the third season of his NFL career, all the way through his first season with the Mike Nolan-coached 49ers.
“When he’d go in the game, he’d look to coach and say, ‘Run (expletive) here,’ ” running back Frank Gore said in 2013, ahead of Allen’s Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremony. “They’d call the play, and we’d be successful. I’m happy to say I played with him.”
Gore ran for a career-high 1,695 yards in that 2006 season with Allen at left guard.
Left tackle Joe Staley joined the 49ers in 2007 and quickly got tips from Allen, which he recalled in 2013: “It was my fifth day of training camp, and I had gotten beat about 10 times in a row on 1-on-1s. I was real passive and intimidated by everybody. After I get beat another time, (Allen) goes in his booming voice, ‘Hey rook, (expletive) punch him.’ So I did the next time, whoever it was, and it worked. (Allen) says, ‘Was that so hard?’”
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Allen was a member of both the 1990s and 2000s NFL All-Decade Teams. He was a 10-time Pro Bowler with the Cowboys (second-most selections in franchise history). The NFL Players Association selected him as its 1996 and ’97 NFC Offensive Lineman of the Year, and he was the NFL’s Offensive Lineman of the Year by the NFL Alumni in 1997.
Allen played in 203 NFL games, as well as two NFC Championship Games with the Cowboys. He started at right guard in the Cowboys’ last Super Bowl victory, their January 1996 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones presented Allen in his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction.
Reflecting on his time at Sonoma State, Allen said in a 2013 interview: “I loved it. It was a great environment for me to thrive, a great experience. It was one of the best group of guys I’ve played with.
Allen was named Northern California Athletic Conference Player of the Year as a senior, but the Cowboys still razzed him upon joining the NFL.
“They said I played against Pop Warner kids,” said Allen, who went on to block for fellow Hall of Famers Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s president, Jim Porter, said in a statement: “The National Football League is filled with gifted athletes, but only a rare few have combined the size, brute strength, speed and agility of Larry Allen. What he could do as an offensive lineman often defied logic and comprehension. In a six-season span, he was named All-Pro every year, and one of those seasons came when the Cowboys needed him to step in at tackle. He could literally beat the will out of his opponents, with many quitting midgame or not dressing at all rather than face him, but that was only on the field. Off it, he was a quiet, gentle giant.”
