It was approaching 5 pm on Nov. 26, 2016. The third quarter of the Iron Bowl was as heated as ever. Bama quarterback Jalen Hurts ran toward the sideline with an Auburn defender in hot pursuit. The Crimson Tide’s head athletic trainer quickly jumped out of Jalen’s way, but he never saw the Tigers’ safety.
The athletic trainer in charge of preventing injuries and treating them when they did happen was suddenly looking for an athletic trainer on the sideline. “I was rocked off my feet,” Jeff Allen told me. “I broke my wrist and 3 ribs.
“The Auburn player tried his best to avoid me. It gave me more appreciation for what these athletes go through, and the Auburn safety was actually slowing down!” He’s the last man standing from Nick Saban’s first Crimson Tide football staff. Jeff Allen’s official title is Senior Associate Athletic Director, Health and Performance at the University of Alabama.
The simple title? Head athletic trainer. He’s the person in charge of overseeing a department with 28 athletic trainers, seven primary care physicians and cutting-edge data and analytics that serves every university student-athlete. “We have a specialist for every body part,” chuckled Allen, who is now in his 19th year at the University of Alabama, his 37th year of working in his field.
Jeff Allen has always had a servant’s heart. “I was lucky to be raised in a home of faith,” said Allen. “I’ve always tried to keep the main thing the main thing.” The main thing was and is faith, family and football. He was but a teenager, and he had discovered his life dream
“I began to get interested in athletic training when I tore my ACL at a Johnny Majors youth camp in Knoxville,” said Allen. “Imagine that.”
It was 1994 when they met.
Marietta, Georgia’s Jeff Allen and Hartwell, Georgia’s Mary Ray were taking a psychology class together at Valdosta State University as they were both pursuing Master’s degrees. Sparks flew, and wedding vows were exchanged on June 15, 1996.
“I was really attracted to Jeff’s goals and dreams and wit,” Mary Allen told me. “Jeff has some great one-liners.”
Jeff Allen was off and running. He was an assistant athletic trainer at Valdosta State and Kentucky where he worked under legendary head athletic trainer Jim Madaleno. He became a head athletic trainer at both Chattanooga and Central Florida. “I learned so much from Jim Madaleno,” said Allen. “I learned about compassion and about building relationships.”
He was looking for a head athletic trainer in January of 2007. Nick Saban had just arrived in Tuscaloosa, and Bama assistant coach Lance Thompson suggested Coach Saban check out a man named Jeff Allen at Central Florida.
“Coach Saban was very impressed with Jeff’s interview,” former Crimson Tide Director of Sports Medicine Bill McDonald told me (McDonald was in his position from 1987 to 2010, and helped the program transition to a new athletic trainer).
Jeff Allen’s folksy style and spirited work ethic were a perfect match for the fiery head coach of the Crimson Tide.
“Jeff was the right person for Bama at the right time, and he’s the right person today,” added McDonald. Said Allen, “Bill McDonald has been so important in my life.” Would Coach Saban and Jeff Allen get along? Allen received a taste of his new boss’ urgency the day he was hired. Jeff Allen was hired on a Friday and asked Coach Saban if he could report to Tuscaloosa the next Tuesday so as to have time to wrap things up at UCF. “We have a kid’s camp this weekend,” said Coach Saban. Jeff Allen was on his way to the Capstone the following day.
They hustled into the Bama indoor practice facility after a thunderstorm chased them there. It was the first week of 2007’s fall camp, one of the first Bama team practices under the new head coach and new head athletic trainer. Coach Saban wanted his team to practice outdoors, so he asked Jeff Allen to keep an eye on the weather.
“You can bring the players back outside,” Jeff told his head coach a short time later. “The rain has passed.” That’s when they heard the noise.
“We must have taken only a few steps outside when we heard a big crack of lightning. It looked as if the lightning had hit Coleman Coliseum,” said Allen.
“Coach Saban turned to me and said, ‘I hope you are a better athletic trainer than you are a weatherman.’” A friendship was formed. Jeff Allen would spend all 17 years of Saban’s Tuscaloosa reign as Bama’s head athletic trainer. The pair would become trusted friends and co-workers.
