by Malcolm Butler
Standing on the infield at LSU’s Bernie Moore Track Stadium in 2017, John Allen suddenly found himself back in 1973.
Forty-four years had disappeared in an instant.
Competing at the USA Track & Field Masters National Championships, Allen couldn’t help but think back to his senior season at Louisiana Tech, when he qualified for the NCAA Championships in the javelin — held at the very same stadium.
More than 50 years later, Allen has reinvented himself as one of the nation’s top masters javelin throwers. Now 76, the former NCAA qualifier has won national championships and continues to compete at an elite level, proving the competitive fire that fueled him as a Bulldog never really faded.
“I hadn’t been there to compete in 44 years,” Allen said.
“I don’t know what I finished (in 1973),” said Allen, who placed second at the 2017 USATF Masters National Championships at Bernie Moore Track Stadium. “Something like 12th. But I competed in the NCAAs that year.”
Allen has spent the past 13 years traveling the country, throwing the javelin and competing against the nation’s best in his age division — much like he did for coach Jim Mize when he helped lead Louisiana Tech to the Southland Conference championship during his senior season.
“I primarily threw the javelin, although Coach Mize was fond of putting me in the intermediate hurdles,” Allen said.
It’s been a full-circle journey for the man who now calls Ruston home.
Born in Seguin, Texas, but raised in West Monroe from age 6, Allen came to Ruston as a freshman in 1969 and quickly fell in love with both the community and Louisiana Tech.
After competing for a few years following graduation with the Baton Rouge Track and Field Club, life — career and family — moved to the forefront, and the javelin faded into the background.
For almost four decades.
Most of Allen’s adult life was spent in the pipeline construction industry, beginning with Ford, Bacon & Davis after graduating from Louisiana Tech and eventually becoming co-owner of Pipeline Constructors. His career took him across the country overseeing major pipeline construction projects before he ultimately served as president of the U.S. Pipeline Contractors Association. During those years, competitive athletics gave way to building a career and raising a family.
That changed in 2013 when he attended a Lake Charles High School reunion with his wife, JoAnn, and met former LSU All-American Delmon McNabb.
“He said he remembered me from my time throwing at Tech,” Allen said. “I was like, ‘Wow.'”
McNabb encouraged Allen to start competing again. After thinking it over, Allen decided to enter the masters competition at Tad Gormley Stadium in New Orleans later that year.
“I basically walked off the street, picked up a javelin and competed,” said Allen, who was 63 at the time. “I won my division. I wasn’t overly pleased with my distance, but I won.”
Walking out of Tad Gormley Stadium following the competition, Allen heard something that surprised him.
“Someone told me that my throw ranked among the nation’s top 10 (in my age division),” Allen said. “I looked it up, and they were right. That changed everything.”
Since returning to competition, Allen has competed annually at both the USATF Masters Championships and the National Senior Games.
Both organizations divide competitors into age groups with five-year increments. Traveling around the country, Allen said the competitive drive is the same as it was in his prime, even if Father Time has changed other aspects.
“Knowing how to do it and doing it are two different things,” Allen said. “Physically, you have to recognize that your body won’t let you do some things.”
Allen still trains regularly in Ruston, although his workouts have evolved over the years to account for the realities of competing in his 70s.
Before last year, when an Achilles injury limited him to only one attempt at the USATF Masters National Championships, Allen had finished in the top three of his division every year.
The highlights came when he won the National Senior Games in Birmingham in 2017 and captured the USATF Masters national championship in Spokane, Washington, in 2018.
These days, Allen said his throws measure around 130 to 140 feet compared with his personal best of 255 feet, set while competing for the Baton Rouge Track and Field Club a year after graduating from Louisiana Tech.
“You’re foolish to think you’re going to get better as you get older,” Allen said. “What you try to do is minimize the decline.”
Another difference, according to Allen, is his attitude toward fellow competitors.
“I’m still going to whip your butt if I can, but it’s a more friendly thing than it was when you were younger,” he said.
Allen said it’s not unusual to run into athletes he competed against during his collegiate days. Those relationships, he said, have become the best part of continuing to compete. There are new friends and a new level of respect and admiration.
“The competition’s still fun, but I’ve made some really good friends,” Allen said. “Everybody has an appreciation for the other person to still do this. You have so much respect for the fact the other guy is still out there doing it.”
Missing this weekend’s USATF Masters National Championships because of a left Achilles injury will be disappointing. It will mark his first absence from the event in a dozen years.
But Allen isn’t finished yet.
After months of rehabilitation, he plans to be back on the runway next year at age 77, chasing another national medal.
And if history is any indication, he isn’t worried about the competition.
“I couldn’t beat them back then,” Allen said with a smile. “But I can now. I outlasted them.”
For the latest local news, subscribe FOR FREE to the Lincoln Parish Journal and receive an email each weekday morning at 6:55 right to your inbox. Just CLICK HERE to sign up.
