When a football fan thinks of a typical defensive end, they likely envision a tall, strong, fast, hard-hitting athlete. Well sure, Oberlin College senior Anthony ‘Tony’ Allen fits into that description at 6-foot-1, and 225 pounds of mostly muscle, but he is much more than that.
A team captain for the Yeomen, Allen is also a leader in the classroom as he boasts the team’s highest grade point average at 3.88 while majoring in chemistry and philosophy.
Away from the gridiron, he is a tutor, researcher, and presenter for Oberlin Workshop and Learning Sessions (OWLS). A devoted Catholic, Allen can also can be heard on Oberlin’s student-run radio station, WOBC 91.5 FM spinning all kinds of tunes from roots to rock to reggae.
Before returning to Oberlin for preseason camp this summer, Allen was hard at work in the lab at Cornell University. He was one of 20 students accepted into the school’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), where he and the other students produced graduate-level research within an organic syntheses lab over a two-month period.
Anthony in the lab at Cornell.
“I won’t lie; it was tough work,” he said. “I believe our study should be published in the coming months in a top chemistry journal. We worked with molecules that will be applied to varying pharmaceutical drugs and pesticides.”
As an OWLS leader in the organic chemistry department, Allen would conduct two sessions a week to help other students better understand the material they were learning in class.
“It was a great teaching and learning experience for myself,” Allen said. “I got to meet and interact with dozens of students and help them in their coursework. I felt like a mini-professor because I had to give lectures and make worksheets. It was very satisfying knowing that I was genuinely helping students.”
While most OWL sessions consisted of roughly 20 students, Allen would also work with his fellow classmates as a one-on-one tutor. Teaching is something that is in his blood as his dad is a philosophy professor, and Allen has thought about following in his footsteps.
“That definitely was my plan, and maybe it still is,” he said. “I have enjoyed teaching
Anthony with other students at Cornell.
since high school as I would help my friends with questions that they may have had. I guess plan A is still to go graduate school, get a PhD, and one day become a professor.”
While Allen certainly works hard in the classroom, like most college students he likes to have a little fun. He gets a break from the football field and his academic course load when he steps into the DJ booth at WOBC.
“It has been awesome for me as I was able to meet a great group of people — friends from outside of my classes and athletics while working there,” he noted. “It has been lots of fun. I have gotten some good reviews from people I don’t even know.”
By now, you may be wondering who is the real Anthony Allen? Is it the relentless defensive end on the Yeomen football team, the astute chemistry student, or the fun-loving DJ? The answer is, he is all of those things.
“My friends say I kind of have three split personalities. There is ‘Tony Allen’ who is about football and is more of a jock, if you will. There is Anthony Allen which is the student and academic. And lastly, I was supposed to be named Sebastian, so that relates to more of my softer side.”
On the field, Allen is anything but soft. One the hardest tacklers in the NCAC, he plays with passion and a non-stop motor. Despite getting hurt in the second game of the season, Allen has helped the Yeomen get off to their first 2-0 start since 1989.
He credits football for shaping him into the person he is today and believes what he has learned on the field carries over to all aspects of life.
“Football has taught me mental and physical self-discipline to a degree that no other activity in my life has,” he said. “The habits developed from rigorous exercise and training, maintaining a healthy diet, and the mental preparation needed for practices and games have truly carried over into my life as a whole. All the adversity that I face off the field is easier to bear and manage due to my on-field experiences. There's nothing quite like taking a real hard hit and having to scrape yourself up to give 100 percent effort the next play. It teaches you humility, perseverance, and toughness.”
Allen, a native of Redford, Michigan, attended Detroit Jesuit High School. There he first learned about Oberlin College when then defensive coordinator and now Head Coach Jay Anderson visited him one day. Detroit Jesuit is also where Anthony’s passion for the Catholic faith continued to blossom. The school’s motto is "Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam" (For the Greater Glory of God). At Oberlin, he is member of the Newman Catholic Community, which is a student organization dedicated to living a Catholic presence at Oberlin.
“The successes I have experienced in the classroom and on the field are reflections of my God-given talents and are motivated by my will to truly give God glory in all that I do. Whether it is before practice and games, in the weight room, in class, before tests, doing homework, or walking around campus, I am often praying for the strength and wisdom to perform and act in the manner that gives God the greatest glory. My power comes from prayer. In all the success I may have achieved up to this point, I have merely been his instrument doing my best to act in accord with his will.”
Allen’s senior year hit a speed bump in the team’s win over Kenyon on September 9 as he left in the first quarter with a foot injury, but that doesn’t change the vision he has for the team this year.
“We want to be competitive in every game and play aggressive and physical. We want our opponents to walk away knowing who we are and that we can hit.”
“Another team goal we have is to get more people out to the games and integrate ourselves within the campus a little bit better and break down some of the stigmas about us.”
Allen, who is a member of the NCAC Academic Honor Roll, embodies the student part of student-athlete and makes it a point to branch out to the entire campus.
“I treat everyone as an equal. I do what I do in the classroom, get good grades, and work hard at it. People usually find out on their own that I am on the football team. In any experience with people outside of athletics, I can show them that athletics are a huge part of who I am, but also, I have this music side to me, or I am good chemistry tutor. Those things are important. Hopefully, they realize the football players here aren’t dumb jocks.”
Allen, who has even taken a ballet class on campus to expand his horizons, said many of his teammates feel the same way about embracing the entire campus community. “Once the season is over, a lot of guys branch out and hang out with their other friends in Stevie and elsewhere on campus and I am totally fine with that.”
Now just two semesters shy of graduation, Allen has experienced much of what Oberlin has to offer. Those who have met him might remember him as “Anthony the chemistry whiz,” “Tony the football player,” or maybe even “Sebastian the soft-spoken one.” However, he wants to carve out his own narrative.
“I want to be remembered as a kind, friendly, goofy, gentle giant, where he looks sort of dumb and harmless when you look at him on the street, but when you get to know him, he treats you with respect and can help you with your chemistry. Really, I just want to be remembered as a loving person, not so much as the best football player or chemistry nerd.”
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