Stanley Allen
Graduating class: 1928
Inducted into Hall of Fame: 2014
Hall of Fame Category: Athlete
Beginning with the 1936 spring season, Stanley Allen’s reputation as a quarter-miler continued to grow. By the end of the ’38 season, it had swelled to record proportions, culminating in a State Class C quarter-mile victory in a record time of 51 seconds and a victory in the Class B competition a week later. The efforts slapped an exclamation point on a brilliant high school track career and permanently erased the question mark that had threatened his love for the sport a year earlier.
His junior year, Allen was hoping to cap a successful spring season with a big effort at the Rhode Island State Interscholastic Meet. He may have won, had he been able to finish. Allen was among the leaders when, without warning, disaster struck. Somewhere, somehow the Fairhaven flash was bumped, knocked down and trampled, leaving him with severe face lacerations and unable to finish. Some questioned whether the wounds would scar his enthusiasm for the sport and force him to turn his back on his senior season. But, like his wounds, any lack of enthusiasm was temporary as Allen faced his final high school track season head on, determined to be better than ever, and that, he was, earning the Allen Whitworth Trophy as Fairhaven’s outstanding track performer.
Allen was among the most popular students at Fairhaven, both in and out of the classroom. As a freshman he was named to the Freshman Executive Committee and as a sophomore and junior he was voted president of his home room. As a senior, he was voted president of his class, was a member of the student council and, for the third consecutive season was a starting end on the school’s varsity football team. Athletically speaking, Allen’s main sport was track and after leading by example in his junior year, he was named captain of the spring team in his final season.
His next venture was at Moses Brown where he excelled in both the classroom and athletic arenas for the next two years, where he played quarter back for the Quaker’s football team and set the 300-yard record in the Private School Association. This led to interest from Brown University where he attended and in 1942 he set a school record of 34 seconds flat in the 300-yard sprint in a dual meet at Northeastern University. He received his degree in 1943 and went on to work with the Insurance Company of North America after an Honorable discharge from the Navy. One year later he married Shirley Buckingham Weise and had two children, Douglas and Susan.
Unfortunately at the age of 29, Allen was diagnosed with polio and the speedster’s life changed forever. A true fighter, Stanley continued his work at the Insurance Company and ultimately became secretary of the company. He is to be remembered as one of the fastest men ever to graduate from Fairhaven High School.