SIDNEY ALLEN
Spring Valley High School
Class of 1966
Sidney Allen inherited the mantle of sprinting supremacy from teammate Jim Ashcroft and kept Spring Valley at the forefront of Rockland County track in the mid-1960s.
Sid swept the 100- and 220- yard dashes at the Rockland County PSAL and Section 9 championship meets in back-to-back years and anchored the Tigers’ 880-yard relay to gold medals in consecutive County and Section 9 meets as well. Sid’s scoring prowess led Spring Valley, under Coach Mike Adrian, to the 1966 RCPSAL dual-meet championship and a runner-up finish behind Nanuet in 1965.
On the state level, Sid attained his greatest success on the relay. The foursome of Willie Allen (no relation), Mose Davis, Wesley Wright and Sid captured a third-place bronze medal at the 1966 New York State championships. Sid also ran anchor leg on the Tigers’ fifth-place 880 relay unit at the State meet the previous year.
By the close of his senior year, Sid had accounted for nine sub-10-second 100-yard dash performances and eight sub-22-second 220-yard times, the most by a Rockland schoolboy through 1966. His personal best of 9.6 in the 100 stands No. 2 on the all-time Rockland list behind ‘64 State champ Ashcroft’s 9.5. (New York State converted from yards to metric distances in the late 1970s).
His best 220-yard time, a blazing 21.5, was run on the long straightaway chute at his home track at the 1966 County meet. His personal best on the standard curve was a 21.8 en route to winning the 1966 Section 9 State Qualifier. Spring Valley’s 1:32.7 880 relay in ‘66 was a County meet record.
Aside from the RCPSAL and Section 9 meets, Sid claimed two State Qualifier titles in the 220 and two more on the relay, notched three victories in the Spring Valley Invitational Relays and two more in the Nyack Jaycees meet at MacCalman Field. It should be noted Sid competed on the cinder tracks of his era, which were not as conducive to fast times as the synthetic all-weather tracks of today.
When asked last year who had the greatest influence on him as a track athlete, Sid cited fellow Hall of Famer Don Clancy of Nyack – “Dashing Don” as he was known – who won five Rockland County titles in the 100 and 220 and waged some memorable duels with Jim Ashcroft just prior to Sid Allen’s emergence. “Don was a strong 220 man,” Sid said at that time. “He worked with me, told me how to run the race.”
Sid was born in Scranton, Pa., and moved at a young age with his family to Spring Valley, where his father, Sidney Allen Sr., operated a shoe repair business for some 40 years in the village downtown. He moved to Middletown, N.Y., in the early 1980s and remained there after marrying his wife, Yvonne.
Sid dealt with several health issues later in life, and died on Dec. 30, 2021, at age 74. He leaves behind Yvonne, his wife of 36 years, and brother Ezekiel “Zeke” Allen of San Antonio, Texas, from the Spring Valley High School class of 1981.
Sid swept the 100- and 220- yard dashes at the Rockland County PSAL and Section 9 championship meets in back-to-back years and anchored the Tigers’ 880-yard relay to gold medals in consecutive County and Section 9 meets as well. Sid’s scoring prowess led Spring Valley, under Coach Mike Adrian, to the 1966 RCPSAL dual-meet championship and a runner-up finish behind Nanuet in 1965.
On the state level, Sid attained his greatest success on the relay. The foursome of Willie Allen (no relation), Mose Davis, Wesley Wright and Sid captured a third-place bronze medal at the 1966 New York State championships. Sid also ran anchor leg on the Tigers’ fifth-place 880 relay unit at the State meet the previous year.
By the close of his senior year, Sid had accounted for nine sub-10-second 100-yard dash performances and eight sub-22-second 220-yard times, the most by a Rockland schoolboy through 1966. His personal best of 9.6 in the 100 stands No. 2 on the all-time Rockland list behind ‘64 State champ Ashcroft’s 9.5. (New York State converted from yards to metric distances in the late 1970s).
His best 220-yard time, a blazing 21.5, was run on the long straightaway chute at his home track at the 1966 County meet. His personal best on the standard curve was a 21.8 en route to winning the 1966 Section 9 State Qualifier. Spring Valley’s 1:32.7 880 relay in ‘66 was a County meet record.
Aside from the RCPSAL and Section 9 meets, Sid claimed two State Qualifier titles in the 220 and two more on the relay, notched three victories in the Spring Valley Invitational Relays and two more in the Nyack Jaycees meet at MacCalman Field. It should be noted Sid competed on the cinder tracks of his era, which were not as conducive to fast times as the synthetic all-weather tracks of today.
When asked last year who had the greatest influence on him as a track athlete, Sid cited fellow Hall of Famer Don Clancy of Nyack – “Dashing Don” as he was known – who won five Rockland County titles in the 100 and 220 and waged some memorable duels with Jim Ashcroft just prior to Sid Allen’s emergence. “Don was a strong 220 man,” Sid said at that time. “He worked with me, told me how to run the race.”
Sid was born in Scranton, Pa., and moved at a young age with his family to Spring Valley, where his father, Sidney Allen Sr., operated a shoe repair business for some 40 years in the village downtown. He moved to Middletown, N.Y., in the early 1980s and remained there after marrying his wife, Yvonne.
Sid dealt with several health issues later in life, and died on Dec. 30, 2021, at age 74. He leaves behind Yvonne, his wife of 36 years, and brother Ezekiel “Zeke” Allen of San Antonio, Texas, from the Spring Valley High School class of 1981.