Player sketch: Richard Allen

Name: Richard James Allen
Born: 4 June 1902, in Nagpur, India 
Died: 1969, in Bangalore, Karnataka, India 
Position: Goalkeeper
Olympic journey: 1928 Amsterdam, 1932 Los Angeles, 1936 Berlin
Medals: Two gold, or three gold?

For a goalkeeper who was rarely beaten, this could be the story of one that got away. Allen was the only Indian player other than Dhyan Chand to be selected for three consecutive Olympics before Independence, but there is reason to doubt if he played an active part in the triumph in Los Angeles in 1932. 

Be what it may, the goalkeeper renowned for his splendid eye, fine sense of anticipation and quick thinking was a certainty in the national team between 1928 and 1936. Allen caught the eye with some ‘absolutely uncanny’ displays for Bengal that helped the hosts reach the final of the inaugural Inter-Provincial Tournament in Calcutta in February 1928 (The Statesman, 8 March 1928, page 13). The meet doubled as selection trial for the Olympic hockey tournament that was to be held in Amsterdam in May. Allen repaid the selectors’ faith in Amsterdam, keeping a clean sheet in all five matches as India won their first Olympic gold.

In Berlin in 1936, Allen played four matches and was beaten only once, when hosts Germany got a consolation goal in the final. India won the final 8-1 to complete a hattrick of Olympic gold medals before the Second World War stopped the Games for twelve years.

Dhyan Chand picked Allen in goal in his best Indian XI drawn from among those he played with or saw play. “The goalkeepers today in the country, in my opinion, are not a patch on the goalkeepers of the past, particularly our great goalkeeper R. J. Allen...,” Dhyan Chand wrote in his autobiography serialised in the weekly Sport and Pastime between May 1949 and January 1951. 

A certain James Richard Allen, born to John James Allen and Catherina, was baptised in Nagpur on June 19, 1902 (Ancestry.com. India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014). The birth date was given as 4 June 1902, which matches goalkeeper Allen’s date of birth in the Olympic database. Allen probably learnt the game in the northern hill town of Mussoorie, while studying at the Oak Grove School (Anglos in the Wind, 5, no. 20, page 38).  Afterwards he was at St Joseph’s College in Naini Tal. He decided early to become a specialist goalkeeper and never played in any other position. He joined the Calcutta Port Commissioners team in 1921 and played in the junior divisions till 1926 (The Statesman, 13 March 1932), after which he never looked back.