The Shadow
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” the mantra originally credited to President John F. Kennedy’s father, Joseph Kennedy, Sr., became the motto that M. Ray Allen used to fuel many of his athletic teams.
In Kentucky, the Lewis County High School’s male varsity basketball team began 0-13 during Allen’s first year as the Lions’ head coach before winning the 62nd District Tournament in 1964, the first in the school’s history, one achieved by defeating three of the teams that had beaten his team during the 0-13 losing streak.
Fortified by his tenacious spirit, Allen, now 81, has a lifetime of achievements to his credit. He was senior class president at both the high school and college from which he graduated in 1959 and 1963 respectively.
He received his A.B. degree with a double major in English and physical education (a rare duo for educators) at Morehead State University where he was inducted as the 80th member of the MSU Alumni Hall of Fame in 1991 for his career as an educator; community service accomplishments with Appalfolks of America Association (AAA), the nonprofit organization he founded in 1985; and his literary achievements.
He earned three varsity letters in baseball as an outfielder with the MSU Eagles, and he played centerfield for the City of Morehead’s semi-pro baseball team that won the Kentucky Semi-Pro Baseball State Championship in 1963.
After earning his MFA degree in secondary education from MSU in 1965, Allen was hired as an English teacher at Fraser High School near Detroit where he coached and taught for two years, fielding winning teams in baseball and cross country.
His 1967 varsity baseball team finished with the winningest record in the school’s history, 16-5, and the team ended the season as runner-up in the Bi-County Tournament after defeating a 22-0 Lakeside High School team to reach the championship game that his Ramblers lost 2-1, to South Lake High School.
Allen was hired as an English teach at Marina High School in Huntington Beach, California, in 1967, and his freshman basketball team finished the season at 20-0 for Lute Olson’s Vikings program that recorded a combined record of 126-6 for its five teams.
While teaching English and physical education at MHS, Allen’s varsity baseball teams recorded winning seasons each of his four years as head coach during which he led MHS’s Vikings to the playoffs for the first time in the school’s history.
Allen left MHS on a sabbatical leave to attend UCLA where he earned his MFA degree in theater arts.
In 1978 he accepted the head male basketball coaching position at Alleghany County High School, and moved his wife, Cherie Davis Allen and their one-year-old son, Landon Ray Allen, to Alleghany County.
While at ACHS, Ray’s teams suffered two losing seasons before finishing 16-6 in 1981, the year the Colts won the only Blue Ridge District male basketball championship in the school’s 20-year history.
It was the last year Ray served as a head varsity basketball coach, but he continued as varsity golf coach, and his 1983 team won the runner-up trophy at Wintergreen by finishing second out of 16 teams. The trophy was the first one that was placed inside the consolidated schools’ Alleghany High School Mountaineer’s trophy case.
Before he retired as an educator in 2004, Ray purchased the Buckhorne Country Store and Campground in 2000. The Allen family continues to own and operate the business that has won Hershey’s Ice Creams’ Golden Scoop Award for 20 years.
Even with all these accomplishments, Ray pursued his passion for writing by freelancing for “The Daily Review,” for four years. He has served as a freelance writer, photographer, editor, and senior writer for “Virginian Review.”
Additionally, he has won more than 40 poetry awards, and his poems have been published in literary magazines from coast to coast. He is the author of four books of poetry, and he is featured as a post-World War II poet in “Encyclopedia of Appalachia,” a 2006 publication by the University of Tennessee Press.
AAA continues to promote the literary and performing arts via drug-free creativity programs in Southern Appalachia.
Ray has served as president of AAA for the past 38 years, and he founded The Virginia Opry in 1992 after R-C Theatres President Irwin R. Cohen donated the Historic Stonewall Theatre to AAA on Dec. 20, 1991.
Ray spearheaded the partial restoration of the twin-cinema by returning the facility to a performing arts center, and after more than $200,000 worth of restoration improvements were made, AAA donated the theatre to the Town of Clifton Forge in 2003.
He is the director of The Virginia Opry that was designated by the Commonwealth of Virginia as the official State Opry on March 31, 2020.
In 1996, AAA founded Special Theatrical Artists Revue & Showcase (STARS), an outreach program for those who face intellectual challenges and/or physical disabilities. STARS is in its 27th performance season, and the troupe has grown from 10 to 30 members.
The crown of his accomplishments though is his marriage of 50 years to Cherie and raising four children together.
Whether as a student, athlete, coach, teacher, writer, philanthropist, businessman, husband, or father, Allen has succeeded in every area he has pursued.
However, it is not his success that should be marveled at, rather the persevering spirit that pushed him to overcome countless obstacles, losses, and hardships in pursuit of his goals.
The Clifton Forge Public Library wishes to honor this very spirit by dedicating a showcase to Allen’s achievements that will be on display at the library throughout April. The library is located at 535 Church St. The telephone number is (540) 863-2519.
The Clifton Forge Public Library invites the community to come and be rejuvenated by the inspiring life of such a marvel of a man.
Perhaps it may encourage one’s own spirit to remember the mantra of a great man, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
